Tag Archives: Leader

A new €250 million Rural Development Programme has been lauched today (Monday) by Environment Minister Alan Kelly and Minister of State for Rural Affairs, Ann Phelan. The funding, which will support the delivery of the LEADER programme to rural areas out to 2020, will focus on tackling rural isolation, generating employment and stimulating village renewal. Each local area will have to develop a strategy on how best to apply this funding for rural areas and expressions of interest in how to spend the funding are being sought from local LEADER companies and others from today. Ireland will conduct a two stage selection process that will seek to secure high quality Local Development Strategies that will complement the economic development work being carried out by local authorities. The first stage is an open call for expressions of interest from any group that can show broad local and community participation and wishes to be considered as a Local Action Group for the …

#Digital Clare, a newly-founded digital marketing network for County Clare, reached 3.5 million people after it was launched at an event in the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis this week. The initiative, which has been run under the CLDC programme, Ditigal Animation, funded by LEADER, has been facilitated by Digital Training Institute founder and Apprentice finalist, Joanne Sweeney Burke. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Joanne explained how the network came about. During the first phase of the programme, Joanne conducted digital marketing and social media courses, delivered from June to October, where she trained 125 people in Clare and delivered 90 one-to-one mentoring hours. “We had such a huge response that we felt we were onto something and that there was an appetite there. We then developed phase two, to create something more formal, like a network, so the idea of DigitalClare was born. Everything that CLDC do under Leader is all about scalability. While I’m contracted as a facilitator …

LOOP HEAD Tourism chairman, Cillian Murphy says that a recent LEADER-sponsored study has calculated that geological group visits to the peninsula are worth up to €1.5m to the West Clare economy. He says that geological visits have increased by approximately 30% this year. “We had a study done with the help of LEADER funding to look at putting a geology centre on the peninsula. Part of the study looked at where the companies were coming from and how much they spent. The estimate was that each trip is worth somewhere in the region of €50,000. That’s direct spend in here. That’s not left in an office in Houston. That’s bills paid on the peninsula. Definitely we have seen between 20 and 25 trips this summer,” Cillian Murphy revealed. “Anecdotally, I would think that we’re up about 30% this year. That’s group visits. Loop Head is now a very attractive proposition for the petro-chemical industry to come and look at the …

AFTER more than 10 years waiting, the doors of the Lough Graney Community Centre are set to open. Ahead of opening for public viewing on Saturday,  Kathleen McNamara, secretary of Loughgraney Community Development Association, acknowledged, “There is no way we would have a community centre in Flagmount without CLDC.” The community development association received LEADER funding of €230,000 to build this centre and, subsequently, received€45,000 under Sports Capital funding to equip the centre. “CLDC have been brilliant. I know they are fighting this struggle about keeping LEADER funding administered by CLDC, but we have seen first-hand what it can do. If we didn’t have CLDC administering the funding, then a small community like ours would never have got it. I think it is vital for LEADER funding to be left with CLDC and our small rural parish and community is a case in point for it. CLDC have a great rapport with communities and they give you backup and support. There …

THE children of Clarecastle came together last weekend to prepare the ground for the new playground in the heart of the village. They agreed that many hands make light work and that they would do what they could to get things moving in advance of the big machinery arriving on-site on Monday. It has been a long road but Clarecastle Community Development Ltd (CCDL) is delighted to see the physical work on the Clarecastle community playground commence at last. “There were a number of unforeseen problems with the project, which caused major delays,” said Marie Clare Gorman, spokeswoman for CCDL, “but with the support of Clare County Council, Leader and the local community, we have overcome the difficulties and a playground is in sight.” The playground is expected to be completed and in full use in June, just in time for the school summer holidays. Most of the finance required from the community has been raised and it is hoped …

THE Courts Service is prepared to hand over the old Courthouse at Killaloe, Deputy Michael McNamara has confirmed. He described this as very good news, adding that he had been working on the issue for some time. The Labour deputy said Clare Council Council has already expressed an interest in acquiring the building for community use. “The Council will now have an opportunity to invite expressions of interest from local groups for the development and use of the building. I am aware of community groups in Killaloe who are interested in the using the property. The current use of Tulla Courthouse by the community is a precedent for what could be done,” he said. “A new round of Leader funding will become available for development by local community groups towards the end of the end of this year. Furthermore, at the end of last year, the Government announced a Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme to assist owners/occupiers of protected structures …