Tag Archives: cedra

FORMER Kerry footballer Pat Spillane made a presentation to members of the recently established Clare Rural Development Forum in Ennis today (Wednesday). Better known nowadays as a TV football pundit, Pat Spillane has a new role as Government Ambassador for the National Action Plan for Rural Development. Comprising members drawn from local community, business, tourism and farming groups, as well as Clare County Council, elected members, third level institutes, and State and Development Agencies, the Forum is currently developing a strategy for Clare, which will be launched in May. Mr Spillane referred to his passion for rural Ireland, his chairmanship of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA) and the importance of interagency collaboration. He also acknowledged Clare County Council’s role in convening the Rural Development Forum and establishing of the country’s first Local Authority Rural Development Directorate. The forum meeting was also addressed by Ciaran Lynch, development manager for LIT, who has a strong background in …

LEADER funding will be down by €105 million over the next five years, according to Councillor PJ Kelly, while CEDRA funding will be worth just 34 cent a year to every person in Clare. Councillor Kelly was calling on the Government to reverse its cutbacks to Leader funding at the adjourned April meeting of Clare County Council and said he was extremely disappointed in the reduction of funding, following a huge level of expectation throughout the country. “The money involved here is EU money, of which the Government only pays 37%,” he said. “In the previous programme we had €352m and because of costs rising over the past five years, we could have expected at least €100m more. Instead, it was cut back by €105m. We were given the impression that we would get €250m, until we actually looked at the small print. It said co-operation projects around the border, €10m; artisan foods, €15m – two in Ireland; CEDRA, €5m …

By Nicola Corless UNEMPLOYMENT and emigration rates increased more in Gort than any other town in the country, according to research revealed this week. Figures for towns in other parts of Ireland will not be released until April, but Professor Cathal O’Donoghue of the Teagasc’s Rural Economy Development Programme outlined details of the group’s research in Gort to a meeting of Galway County Council on Monday, as part of a presentation from The Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Area (CEDRA). According to its national town rankings, which take into account unemployment and emigration rates, Gort has seen the biggest fall nationally in a Teagasc index of small and medium sized towns. In 2002 and 2006 it was just outside the top 10% of towns in Ireland but by 2011 it had slipped to the bottom 10%. The South Galway town lost 400 jobs in just five years, between 2006 and 2011. While the population of the town dropped …