IT must cause grave concern that those who know most about rural development and are active in the area are totally opposed to its removal from the Department of Agriculture and Food.

For some years now it has been fashionable in certain circles to attack the Department of Agriculture, especially since the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry.

It has to be acknowledged that the Department did not come well out of that episode. The taxpayer had to pay for huge fines flowing from the Department's failure to do its job.

Recent public health scares involving drug residues in food and the monitoring of animal feed in relation to the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy crisis have not added to the Department's popularity.

No one in the Department is arguing against the establishment of an independent authority to monitor food safety.

While there is concern in the Department at the loss of its forestry brief, it is conceded that there is some kind of logic in giving it to the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources.

But to take Rural Development away from Kildare Street seems more like a punishment than a clearly thought-out policy decision which would help stop the population decline in rural Ireland.

Most of the money for rural development comes from Brussels and is sanctioned by Mr Franz Fischler, who happens to be the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Already the Eurocrats are raising their eyebrows at the intention to transfer rural development to the Department of the Environment. They have been asking journalists if this signals a lessening of interest in the subject.

They are very aware that the Department of Agriculture has been to the forefront in the Union in the rural development area since 1989, and pioneered the Leader rural development programme.

That programme became a model for the rest of the Union. Ireland has been able to extend it to cover most of the State with the blessing of the Commission.

A prerequisite of any real form of rural development has to be a strong agricultural sector. Without that people just drift out of an area following the services and the work.

Farmers are in a minority in rural Ireland, but their presence working Ireland keeps the fires burning on rural hearths, the schools open, the postmistress at work and the Garda station open.

The importance of a vibrant farming community was demonstrated very ably by Father Harry Bohan, a leading sociologist and rural development activist, in his study of the decline which followed farmers' pulling out of milk production in several Clare parishes some years ago.

This week he called on the Government to examine its priorities in relation to rural development, and to reconsider any decision to remove it from Agriculture.

Father Bohan, who has never been too loud in his praise of the Department of Agriculture over the years, made the point that farm families and others involved in indigenous occupations are the lifeblood of rural Ireland.

The main thrust of any rural development policy, he said, must be to encourage and facilitate those families, and future generations, not only to remain in their native areas but to have equal access to essential services and a comfortable standard of living.

"It is nob longer acceptable for people in high places to make decisions from afar which have serious implications for rural Ireland, and who see the rural countryside not as living, vibrant community, but as a huge leisure park for urban dwellers," he said.

As the Government is not prepared to set up a separate Department of Rural Development, he believes that rural development policy is at present best served through the Department of Agriculture.

He added that the issue should also be of serious concern to community councils and development associations. He urged them to let their voices be heard on the issue.

That is already beginning to happen. Quite a number of organisations are beginning to respond to what appears an illogical decision which is bound to have a negative impact on a system which is beginning to bring results.

Since the new Government was formed a large number of people from Leader programmes, and integrated rural development organisations and community councils, have said they are appalled at what is about to happen.

None is critical of the Fianna Fail programme for rural development. But they cannot see why it should be removed from a Department which has been handling it very well up to now and where, they believe, it should most naturally remain.