Rural Leitrim is on the brink

A lack of one-off construction in Leitrim, the least populated county in Ireland, was the issue raised by councillors at the latest Manorhamilton Municipal District meeting.
The members were speaking after a presentation by David McGlinchey, manager of the KPMG Future Analytics Team; the company that is assisting the Council in the development of their new Local and Economic Community Plan (LECP).
The LECP is a six-year plan that sets out the objectives and actions needed to promote the community and economic development of Leitrim.
Cllr Mary Bohan talked about the importance of sustaining rural communities saying that issues around septic tanks are making it difficult for people to build outside urban areas.
She said: “We were told several times and have spoken to people in that field who say there is an engineering solution but we seem to be years banging on the door.”
She continued that in order to sustain the rural population in the county, “we need housing” and need to “retain our schools and other facilities”.
This month the Leitrim Observer reported that Leitrim had one of the highest amounts of failed septic tank inspections last year, with a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showing that just 57% of defects were fixed; one of the lowest nationally.
Cllr Frank Dolan supported Cllr Bohan's statement, saying that if a lack of people living in rural areas causes schools to close down “then the rot is going to have set in in rural Leitrim.
Cllr Padraig Fallon said that all councillors were aware of families who want to come back to Leitrim “who have been working abroad or working in urban centres around the county and they can't. When they look for planning, they are not able to get it within the county.”
He said that he believed that the methods are there to tackle the issue around septic tanks however “we're not allowed to use them.”
Chairperson Cllr Felim Gurn said that a lack of transport in rural areas is also an issue.
He continued that in terms of young people taking up apprenticeships, “we are educating them and they are going abroad; that's the sad part.”
He noted that 130 students sat their Leaving Cert in Manorhamilton this year however only 50 are set to sit their Leaving Cert next year.
He added: ”There are 1,800 Ukrainians in the county at the minute. Were they factored into this?”
Cllr Justin Warnock Leitrim Cathaoirleach, commented on the “forestry issues in Leitrim” noting that there was 30,000 hectares of “commercial conifers” in the county.
“The destruction of biodiversity in this county has been phenomenal yet people are still looking for licences to keep planting land.”
He added he felt the plan was quite broad and needed to be more specific to Leitrim.
Mr McGlinchey responded that there are “very Leitrim-specific actions” in terms of the plan's approach to biodiversity including the continuation of the Hedgerow Appraisal Survey and Leitrim Wetland Survey.
He said in relation to the rural planning issue, Leitrim County Council is liasing with Trinity College in Dublin to progress a pilot system that would address the issue.
Cllr Bohan said that councillors are “listening to that for years and there is nothing happening.”
She stressed: “There needs to be a standout statement in this plan to say what we are going to do and when we are going to do it.”
She added that “it can't be rocket science that we can't find a solution” saying that “technology has progressed a lot” in the last number of years.
She continued that in other countries, other methods are implemented to solve similar issues such as “they have a system where the septic tank can be cleared whenever it needs to be done and taken to a main sewage plant.”
She said: “You could have a son or daughter who wants to build on the farm and they can't do it. This plan is an opportunity for us to really highlight it.”
Cllr Fallon said that this is “the issue for the sustainability of the rural communities within our county.”
Cllr Gurn concluded by saying: “We're not going to have an increased population with nowhere for people to live in rural areas and won't be able to sustain our communities and sustain schools and GAA teams and everything else.”