IMPLEMENTING CHANGE:

A NEW LOCAL AGENDA FOR

JOBS AND GROWTH In co-operation with the EU Presidency, Irish Government and Pobal

26-27 March 2013, Dublin-Kilkenny, Ireland

9th Annual Meeting

WORKSHOP C: EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL INCLUSION IN RURAL AREAS

Brian Harvey Independent Social Researcher, Ireland

Brian Harvey and Kathy Walsh

OECD conference, UCD, Dublin

Workshop C, 1300 to 1500, 26th March 2013

brharvey@iol.ie kwresearch@eircom.net

Capture recent (esp. 2008+) trends in employment, social inclusion in rural areas

Fill a gap in analysis of triangle of:

Rural development

Employment

Social inclusion

Look at examples outside Ireland

Make recommendations

Here, statistical analysis first; then issues, findings, problems, solutions, recommendations

1987 1994 2000

Open country 21.5% 19.6% 32.4%

Village/town 25.2% 26.4% 36.3%

<3,000

Town 3,000+ 14.2% 19.2% 25.2%

Major cities 18% 18.4% 31.3%

Dublin 8.7% 15.1% 17.1%

Combat Poverty Agency

2009 2010 2011 +-

National 14.1% 14.7% 16% +13%

Urban 11.8% 12.5% 14.2% +20%

Rural 17.8% 18.1% 18.8% +5.6% EU SILC, 2013

Rural poverty is higher

But urban poverty is increasing faster

Consistent poverty rate

2009 2010 2011 +-

Urban 5% 6.6% 6.9% +36%

Rural 6.2% 5.9% 7.1% +14.5%

Deprivation rate

2009 2010 2011 +-

Urban 18.7% 22.9% 26.2% +40%

Rural 14.9% 22.2% 21.8% +46% EU SILC, 2013

A complex picture, so what’s going on…?

We divided country into: ◦ Urban, 5,000+

◦ 3,000 to 5,000 (towns or peri-urban)

◦ Rural (<3,000) to refine the analysis And these are the outcomes…

5,000+ 3-5,000 <3,000

Border 26% 28% 21%

Midland 27% 29% 19%

West 20% 16% 18%

Dublin 17% 17% 15%

Mid-East 18% 18% 18%

Mid-West 25% 0% 17%

South East 25% 26% 19%

South West 19% 19% 15%

Rural unemployment lowest, 3-5,000 highest

Less Same More

Deprivation Deprivation

5,000+ 21% 62% 17%

3,000 to 5,000 12% 62% 25%

<3,000 14% 66% 20%

Towns 3,000 – 5,000 are focus of problem

‘Towns are dying on their feet’

But we lack explanations (LA tenants? Closures public services, shops, where jobs are?)

Need for more refined definition of rural

Irish rural policy is out of date ◦ Enhancing our future, 1999

◦ Rural initiatives (RSS, RTP) – but not same as a policy

Need for a statement of basis for rural policy ◦ E.g. Future of rural society (Commission, 1988)

◦ Equivalence principle

Absence of rural proofing ◦ Many key national policy documents have no rural sections or

only passing mention

◦ Look at Action plan for jobs, National Skills Strategy, Enterprise Strategy, ministerial briefings 2011

◦ ‘Rural’ has slipped down policy hierarchy

Positively, convergence about what should be done ◦ Between Ireland and Europe

◦ Between NGOs and government

Main elements ◦ Investment in infrastructure, public services

◦ Green jobs (agrifood, farmer markets, social farming, organic etc), low carbon economy (biofuels, wind, wave)

◦ Targeted assistance for SMEs, micro-enterprise, social enterprise

◦ Upskilling right through to upper age range

◦ Rural, heritage, eco-tourism

Ireland lags behind Europe in key areas ◦ E.g. organics, biomass, nature protection, renewables

◦ Example inappropriately applied e.g. wind

◦ Missed opportunities e.g. heritage tourism, wave, Groundwork type improvements

Activation does not match scale of problem ◦ Not adapted to rural situation

◦ Does not address transport, childcare, progression

◦ Need to re-direct resources from control

Role of the state ◦ Criticized as extreme laissez faire

◦ State agencies traditionally played important role e.g. ACC, ESB, NET, BNM, CSE: can do so again

Lack of apprenticeship development cf. successful European economies (only 1,400 places)

Small size of social economy (0.68% cf 6% EU)

Need to re-set social inclusion policy ◦ In rural context

◦ In post-2008 context

Need to re-affirm role of community development ◦ It was a major driver in improvement in rural Ireland

post 1980s

◦ Since then, CDP gone, LCDP down -42%, alignment process. Consequences if you cut out a main driver.

Need for broader community of policy, practice

◦ Rural vision, policy direction

◦ Successful application of policy – proofing

Rural policy implementation group, incl. NGOs

◦ Fall application of European menu

◦ Community of policy, practice

◦ Adapt activation to rural environment

◦ Apprenticeships, social economy

◦ Rebalance state support for rural enterprise

◦ Revise NAPSIncl in light of rural, post-2008

◦ Re-affirm value of community development Operation of CLLD as a global grant 2013-2020