A snapshot into the thinking of modern-day rural Ireland
Rural Ireland is often referred to as one homogenous group but as the Irish Examiner/Ipsos Rural Ireland Thinks poll reflects, this is not a uniform group about whom the same old sweeping assumptions can be made
Sean Murray reports
Design and Graphics by Irish Examiner Visual Media
With a general election looming within the next six months, and potentially much sooner, the Irish Examiner Rural Ireland Thinks poll provides a snapshot of how people in rural Ireland are feeling and what their priorities are, as they await the choice of who to send to the 34th Dáil.
It shows a majority are worried about climate change, are opposed to paying the TV licence and don’t think there’s enough of a garda presence on rural roads.
Here, we dig into the numbers that tell us about rural Ireland in 2024.
Healthcare
According to the poll, perceptions of the quality of health services in rural Ireland appear to be generally positive.
Over four in five people said they have satisfactory access to A&E hospital services (82%) and emergency services (84%).
Furthermore, a substantial majority trust their local maternity services and two-thirds said that they trusted the HSE “despite recent scandals”.
On GP services, 92% said they have access to a GP, but more than half of people said they had to wait two days or more for an appointment in the last 12 months.
The problem seems to be particularly acute in the rest of Leinster outside of Dublin, with two-thirds of people saying they had to wait two or more days for an appointment.
Despite large proportions indicating satisfaction with health services, health still nevertheless features near the very top of the priority list when it comes to directly influencing how people will vote in the upcoming general election.
When asked, 64% of people said the health service would be “very influential” in how they vote, second only to the cost of living.
Policing
Regarding road safety, two-thirds of people (67%) disagreed with the assertion that there is a “visible garda presence on rural roads”. There was a sharp geographic disparity when it came to this question.
While only 22% of people living in rural parts of Munster agreed there was a visible garda presence on rural roads, this rose to 41% in Connacht. Older people, meanwhile, were more likely to disagree that there was a visible garda presence on the roads.
There was an almost even split when people were asked to agree that drink driving laws are more relaxed in rural areas. In all, 39% agreed with this statement while 43% disagreed. However, more of those who agreed do so slightly while a greater proportion who disagreed tended to disagree strongly.
Furthermore, only slightly more than two in five have been stopped at a garda checkpoint in the last year.
It comes as the spotlight has been firmly on road safety in Ireland in recent years as fatalities and serious injuries caused by crashes have risen sharply in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Regarding policing more generally, around two-thirds of people also said they didn’t think there was a visible garda presence in their area.
On the other hand, a strong majority (84%) said they feel safe living in rural Ireland.
Childcare, schools and smartphones
A range of questions were posed to rural Ireland dwellers around childcare and the usage of smartphone and social media among children.
Of the respondents who were parents, just one in seven disagreed with the statement that there is access to creche and childcare facilities in their area.
More than 9 in 10 indicate that there is access to schools for those that need them in their area, with a slight majority agreeing that childcare costs are a potential barrier to having children.
Turning to smartphones, a substantial majority (71%) believe that children under 13 shouldn’t have access to smartphones.
When parents are directly asked about monitoring their children’s smartphone usage, most of them (86%) say that they have done so at some stage in the past.
However, among non-parents, an even higher proportion (96%) said parents should monitor their children’s smartphone usage.
More than 4 in 5 say they have monitored their own child’s social media usage with again, an even higher number of non-parents suggesting that parents should be doing this.
It would appear the job of this monitoring falls more often to mothers, with 87% of women saying they monitor or have monitored their child’s social media use in the past compared to 74% of men.
TV Licence
Amidst a protracted crisis at the national broadcaster, the Government recently kicked the can down the road somewhat on the future of funding for public service broadcasting with a commitment to fund RTÉ to the tune of €725m over the next three years.
Even with this funding, the licence fee is still mandatory in Ireland.
And, in this poll, a majority of people said they are opposed to paying the TV licence, with 53% opposed compared to 34% in support.
There was very much an age divide in terms of paying the TV licence, with 52% of people aged 65 and over supporting paying the TV licence compared to 17% of 18-24 year olds and 18% of 25-34 year olds.
There was also a geographic disparity, with only 23% of people in the rest of Leinster supporting paying the TV licence compared to 40% of people in rural Connacht and Ulster.
Isolation
Given the lack of public transport connectivity in so many areas and the relative dearth of broadband in some rural parts compared to urban centres, issues around loneliness and isolation are frequently referenced when discussing the wellbeing of those living in rural Ireland.
Charities such as Alone and Age Action have repeatedly highlighted the importance in creating initiatives to reach out to those feeling isolated and reducing the burden of loneliness in these communities.
In this poll, just over a fifth of the adult population in rural Ireland (22%) said they have felt lonely or isolated in the last 12 months.
This proportion was much higher for those aged over 65 (31%) and in Munster (29%).
Donald Trump
The poll found that a strong majority disagreed with the statement that another Donald Trump presidency would be good for Ireland. While 11% of people said they “somewhat disagreed” with this statement, a further 56% said they strongly disagreed.
Both Mr Trump and his running mate JD Vance have criticised Ireland for different reasons in the past, while European leaders have expressed dismay at Mr Trump’s stance on Vladimir Putin, particularly given the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to the poll, there was greater evidence of positivity towards Donald Trump in Munster and among men.
While almost one in five (19%) of rural Munster dwellers think another win for the Doonbeg hotel owner would be a good thing for Ireland, this falls to just 6% among rural Leinster dwellers.
Only 6% of people aged 25-34 agreed that a Donald Trump presidency would be good for Ireland.
There was a clear majority among those in rural Ireland saying they worry about the effects of climate change (67%). This was much higher for women (71%) than men (62%). Women were more likely than men to consider switching to an electric car (23% vs 18%).
In terms of Government action to fight climate change, there was a divide as 43% said it is doing enough to tackle it compared to 38% who said it is not.
There is reasonably strong support for farmers with a quarter feeling that they contribute negatively to climate change but 61% disagreeing in this regard.
Furthermore, 65% of people said they wouldn’t be willing to pay more levies and taxes to reduce carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, one in six people say they don’t believe in climate change. People aged 24-34 and 35-49 were most likely to say they don’t believe in climate change (19%).
Religion
A majority (58%) agree that religious services have been curtailed in their area and interestingly as many as 58% say that they consider themselves religious whereas 26% do not.
There was a strong age disparity in this regard, with 78% of people aged 65 and over saying they consider themselves religious compared to just 36% of 25-34 year olds.
Women were a lot more likely to consider themselves religious compared to men, at 65% vs 51%.
There was little difference across social classes when it came to whether someone considered themselves religious or not.
In conjunction with the launch of the poll, the Irish Examiner went to Bantry Market on Friday to seek the views of local people on issues as diverse as immigration, rural policing, euthanasia and church attendance.
VIDEO NOEL SWEENEY
Methodology
As part of this poll, face-to-face interviews were conducted over a week-long period last month. The sample was designed using electoral divisions with a population size of less than 1,500 people, or “technically rural”.
The pollsters also said that weighting was applied to ensure the polling is representative of rural Ireland. Around a quarter of the sample have some connection to farming, with about 17% either working as farmers or married to one.
It has a +/- margin of error of four percentage points.
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