Fianna Fáil has slammed the Government's national development programme and claims rural communities in Wexford will "suffer".

The 'Ireland 2040' plan was published last month by Minister for Housing Simon Coveney and sets out the key development priorities for the Government over the next 23 years.

TD for Wexford James Browne said the plan is "underwhelming"

He said: "The Government should have used this new plan as a way for incentivising development in small towns, villages and rural communities in Wexford. Encouraging people to live in these communities will relieve the pressure on our cities and will also inject a new lease of life into our towns and villages. We need a plan to reinvigorate rural communities in Wexford, but unfortunately the proposals put forward by Minister Coveney falls well short of this.

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"I'm particularly concerned by the fact that Waterford City is the only area in the entire south-east which has been earmarked in this development plan. I fear that towns such as Wexford, Enniscorthy, Gorey and New Ross could suffer as a result of this decision. Government agencies will now be focusing on developing Waterford City, which will ultimately end up taking resources away from Wexford.

"We need to see a rebalancing of the focus and budgets of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland with the view to giving greater priority to the entire south-east, and not just Waterford City."

(CD/LM)