It is pretty obvious that Rural Ireland is not a priority for the Department of Rural and Community Affairs after the debacle of how the results of the 2017 Tidy Towns competition was handled on Monday.
It is the biggest day of the year for at least 300 community groups and over 6,000 volunteers around the country as they waited to hear how their area did in the 2017 Tidy Towns competition. The Tidy Towns website crashed shorty before 1pm and was down all day and community groups were left wondering how they had done but there was no one to contact or explanation from the organisers or the Department as to what was happening.
These voluntary groups all around the country do massive work in every community in Rural Ireland. It is work that would cost billions if it was paid for by the Government. It is a disgraceful way to treat these people to leave them in the dark and not tell them what’s going on. We were told that Rural Ireland was a priority for this Government and I was informed that the Department of Rural and Community affairs is responsible for the running of the Tidy Towns competition now, yet it was impossible to contact them on Monday to find out what was going on. It is just not good enough and another kick in the backside for Rural Ireland.
