Developing economic opportunities clear focus for County Council in 2018
Today (11th January 2018), Carlow County Council’s, Chief Executive Kathleen Holohan & Cathaoirleach Councillor William Paton, launched the “What’s the Big Idea?” campaign which is designed to provide a clear roadmap for the development of key economic opportunities for County Carlow to provide a greater level of employment and enterprise activity across the County.
County Carlow: What’s the Big Idea Campaign is a campaign designed to actively engage in the development of opportunities for County Carlow with a view to having a clear practical action plan to make these projects a reality. Speaking about the project, Cllr. William Paton, Cathaoirleach said “Carlow County Council has put together a cross functional team who aim to leverage and focus on the key economic opportunities for County Carlow and the first key stage is the agreement of our key projects in the area of business support, economic development and tourism”, the Cathaoirleach continued to say “while we are aware of a number of opportunities we urge communities to engage in this process by outlining where they believe is the greatest opportunity for the County and we believe by collectively working together we can bring projects to the fore more quickly”.
The “Big Idea” process involves an online campaign where interested parties can submit their project ideas. These projects will be evaluated and suitable projects will be selected for future development.
Speaking about the project Kathleen Holohan, Chief Executive of Carlow County Council said “County Carlow has plenty of potential, particularly in the area of business development and tourism and we as a local authority need to bring together a clearly focused plan in order to harness this potential”, she continued to say “We are very close to the Dublin market so County Carlow is ideally suited for the establishment of incubation and business development hubs. We need to really push ourselves as a county so companies in Dublin looking for a second site choose County Carlow, or a company relocating because of Brexit regards County Carlow as the best option”. 'The Local Enterprise Office is now part of Carlow County Council and plays a very important role. We will continue to liaise with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland about attracting business to Carlow”.
Holohan continued by saying “As part of this project we will be looking at ideas that are critical to County Carlow’s economic future which align us with the opportunity that is Ireland’s Ancient East and also supports our business community and potential companies in a real way”. Concluding Holohan said “this process while focused on business support, economic development and tourism impacts aims at impacting the social fabric in our rural communities by creating sustainable jobs for the future”.
Members of the public and interested parties can submit their idea on https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NLrTzAZBlE71rZY-wnsk9Hk3HZHLL95pfWDJ37dsHTk/edit
or find out more by e-mailing enterprise@carlowcoco.ie or by calling 059/9129783. The closing date for submissions is 2nd February 2018.
Ends
For further information contact Kieran Comerford on 086/8252037 E-mail: kcomerford@carlowcoco.ie
