Rural Ireland 2025: foresight perspectives

The aim of this foresight project is to provide perspectives of Irish rural and coastal areas to 2025. The focus is on ensuring the economic vitality of rural communities, protecting the quality of the physical environment, and on enhancing the use of the country?s natural resources. Developments in the national economy and international drivers of change are also taken into account. The project identifies likely outcomes from alternative scenarios of the future for selected themes. One scenario posits a continuation of current trends. Another includes initiatives leading to outcomes that would achieve a greater degree of implementation of goals set forth in national policy documents. The Rural Foresight project, initiated in late 2003, was undertaken by an Inter-Institutional Working Group from NUI Maynooth, University College Dublin and Teagasc (Appendix 1). Funding was provided by the Department of Agriculture and Food, COFORD, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Marine Institute. To provide a wider input into the study, a Consultative Forum, comprising knowledgeable and influential stakeholders, was established (Appendix 2). Their discussions were facilitated by the presentation of Thematic Papers prepared by members of the joint Working Group, and by staff from COFORD and the Marine Institute. The Working Group also drew on additional material in relevant reports from other organisations.