Michael McDowell has claimed that people in the anti-car lobby want Irish people “to live like hobbits”, where they walk and cycle everywhere in densely populated communities. 

The independent Senator and former Tánaiste argued that officials increasingly seem not to value rural life and fail to recognise that, while it may have its challenges, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with life in the countryside.  

“People do want to live in places other than in villages and towns,” he told The Claire Byrne Show. 

“And there's a kind of an official orthodoxy, that it's better that people live in villages and towns because it's cheaper to provide them with services.

“And therefore, that one-off rural dwellings are a bad idea.” 

Homes in rural Ireland. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Senator McDowell added that he recognises that providing services in rural Ireland is more expensive for the State, but that does not mean it not worth doing. 

“What I am suggesting is that there's a kind of an academic/planning/Governmental view that it really would be better if people didn't live in a one-off house in rural Ireland,” he added. 

“The point I raised is, if you said to those people, ‘Here's a swap, I can put you into a town or a village’, most people in those houses would say, ‘Absolutely not, I'm very happy where I am.’” 

Senator McDowell also conceded that people in rural Ireland are generally reliant on polluting petrol and diesel cars to get about; however, he noted these models are gradually being replaced with EVs. 

“Imagine if they were all electric? What is wrong with people having cars? They are immensely liberating,” he argued. 

“The fact that you can go and visit your Granny without having to take taxis and buses and trains is a huge liberation for many, many people. 

“And I mean, there's an unspoken lobby - and I don't want to exaggerate - wants us to live like hobbits [where] we all go by bike and walking.”

A car on narrow two-way road descending the Conor Pass from Dingle town. Picture by: M. Timothy O'Keefe. 

The Senator also noted that the result of more people living in cities and towns is that communities in rural Ireland are experiencing depopulation challenges. 

“In rural Ireland - and the GAA have been very vocal on this - declining rural populations are leading to a diminution in social activity,” he said. 

“It's harder and harder to field a football team, it's harder and harder to get a community together because people are, in fact, migrating to towns for various reasons.”

Main image: Michael McDowell. Picture by: Alamy.com.