I propose to take Questions Nos. 96, 125 and 137 together.
I thank Deputy O'Shea for his question. The Our Rural Future policy is delivering vital investment and supports to rural areas, strengthening local economies and improving quality of life across rural Ireland. Our programme for Government includes a commitment to publish and implement a new Our Rural Future policy. The development of this policy has been informed by very extensive public and stakeholder consultation, which took place throughout 2025. It gathered the views of over 2,000 participants.
The engagement included an online survey, a series of eight public and stakeholder events, including one in Charleville, and a public written consultation, which received more than 270 responses. The Rural Youth Assembly was directly consulted to ensure the voices of young people are being fully considered in this process. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I, along with our officials, have held bilateral meetings with key stakeholders and representative groups, including the GAA demographics group, Departments and public bodies.
The key themes emerging include supporting local economies and strengthening the resilience and sustainability of rural towns, villages and communities, all with a view to promoting balanced regional development. The development of the new policy has also been informed by an independent review of rural policy in Ireland, which was carried out by a panel of international experts from the OECD. The new policy will continue our whole-of-government approach, building on the progress and investment that have been delivered to date and setting out a renewed and refreshed vision for the years ahead.
With this in mind, I recently brought an update to a Cabinet meeting in relation to the development of a new policy and our shared approach to delivering ambitious and measurable actions across government. Informed by the results of the consultations and the OECD review, the new Our Rural Future policy will be based around five interconnected policy pillars, focusing on rural places, rural services, rural communities, the rural economy and the rural environment.
In addition to the policy setting out the key priorities in each pillar, a series of ambitious, clear, practical and measurable actions will be developed and outlined in the accompanying action plan, which will cover the initial period, until the end of 2028. The policy and the associated action plan are nearing completion. We are continuing to work with ministerial colleagues to finalise this process. We are beginning a series of bilateral meetings with a view to bringing a draft of the policy to the Government over the summer.
On the issue of depopulation, recent figures from the Central Statistics Office show the population of highly rural and remote areas increased by 6.4% between 2016 and 2022. These findings align with the analysis of the OECD, which, in its review, found that rural and remote regions in Ireland recorded the highest population growth of all OECD countries between 2001 and 2021.
Of course, there are significant variations within these figures, and I very much recognise that there are rural areas that face particular challenges. Ensuring the sustainability and attractiveness of all rural areas remains a key focus of the Government. The development of our new Our Rural Future policy and the full range of schemes being delivered by the Department focus on this.
