The Government is to set up a Cabinet sub-committee chaired by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to ensure that all Government policies and spending comply with its strategy for rural development.
This "rural-proofing", as it was described yesterday by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Noel Davern, will involve the examination of each department's policies to ensure they comply with the Government's policy for rural development.
Speaking at the publication of a White Paper entitled Ensuring the future: a Strategy for Rural Development in Ireland, Mr Davern said the proposal would give rural development a "powerful voice at Cabinet".
Under the proposals, the Cabinet sub-committee will, with an inter-departmental committee, ensure all policies are in accordance with rural development criteria.
Agriculture is to be the lead department in the inter-departmental committee and is to be renamed the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
The moves would, according to Mr Davern, target many disparate areas of Government policy on rural areas.
He also promised that the input of local and regional authorities, the social partners, local development agencies and the voluntary sector into rural development policies "will be assured through a national regional development forum".
This forum is to be set up by October of this year and will report to the inter-departmental committee which in turn reports to the Cabinet sub-committee.
Mr Davern insisted this was the essence of rural-proofing all national policies.
In the agricultural sector, £10 billion will be invested as a result of Agenda 2000 over the next seven years.
While he believed smallholdings would survive - even as a second family income - he said it was well known that not everybody in small towns was involved in agriculture.
The Minister said the White Paper proposals encompassed more than the agricultural sector, pointing out that they also covered balanced regional industrial development.
There was, he said, a sense of urgency in tackling the infra structural backlog to encourage investment in the regions. He said this would be reflected in the forthcoming National Development Plan, which would be published by November.
"For example, there will be a huge commitment to rail infrastructure in the new plan," he said.
The Minister added that there would also be huge investment in roads, waste-treatment plants and environmental measures.
He said congestion in large cities such as Dublin, Cork and Limerick should not be countered by people commuting to Dublin from long distances even along a greatly improved rail network. Rural development would have to encompass an employment base in the regions themselves.
The rural development strategy would envisage people moving out from Dublin to rural areas, gaining employment, joining schools and taking part in the local community.
In this way, it was the State's first properly integrated development strategy.
Concluding his comments, the Minister said the White Paper represented a major commitment by Government to policies aimed at supporting vibrant, sustainable communities into the future. "The White Paper is not an end in itself but is a Government strategy to ensure the Government's objectives for rural Ireland would be achieved and that there will be a bright future for rural communities,"
