Longford GAA clubs ‘fighting to get numbers’ amid growing problem in rural areas

A number of GAA clubs in County Longford are “fighting to get numbers” due to the growing problem of rural repopulation, an Oireachtas meeting has heard.

Longford-Westmeath Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy spoke on the subject during a meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Deputy Carrigy said: “As a proud Longford man who has been involved in the GAA all my life, I have seen what the witnesses have said.

“I have seen us lose clubs and cases where clubs have had to amalgamate.

“In other cases, some of the population has left a town centre and moved to surrounding areas, which leaves a club in a town with a population of 10,000 fighting to get numbers while some of the surrounding clubs are burgeoning.”

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He went on to explain how depopulation affects other areas of community life in rural areas.

“There is also a knock-on effect on facilities, such as community centres and schools. Schools are closing due to a lack of numbers because planning has not been put in place in those rural areas.

“Yet, the price of land in our bigger towns and cities has gone through the roof. It was mentioned that one club had to pay €2 million for a bit of ground for a football pitch.

“We need to look at the issue of zoning holistically. We must zone facilities for sporting, community and educational purposes as well as for housing.”

Deputy Carrigan, who chaired the meeting, suggested that the committee put together a report on potential ways to tackle the problem.

“The key word to me is ‘communities’, and we are losing communities along our western seaboard and in the midlands.

“We will expand on this in our next meeting. It is a good point and we will discuss it as a committee ourselves.

“There is an opportunity for us to put a report together to put forward our recommendations and tease out where there is a need for a shift in planning and zoning.

“Now is the ideal time because we have to put new targets in place and every local authority is expected to put additional zoning in place so that we can cater for the population.”

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Carrigan thanked a number of witnesses from the GAA who had attended as guest speakers.

He called on the focus to be switched to planning in local areas across the country. He added that the committee would return to the issue in the near future.