Address by Mr. Noel Treacy T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce at the Launch of the Galway Rural Development Internet Site in the Oranmore Lodge Hotel on Monday 30th November 1998

I am very pleased to have been invited here today to finally launch the new Internet Site which is being funded by Galway Rural Development under the LEADER II Programme.

As many of you will know, the main focus of the LEADER programme is to help people to have a say in their own local development. The County Galway Leader Board has played a key role, in actively encouraging and supporting people in the local communities to help themselves. For that reason, the LEADER programme has been a very important support mechanism in rural development over recent years. By providing the means to allow groups to identify needs and opportunities in their local areas it enables them to respond to the situation to best effect. Groups like the Galway LEADER Company have been using the programme to harness the enthusiasms and the untapped energies that reside in their own rural communities, across the country.

I had a chance to see this for myself at the "Tomorrow's Farm and Enterprise Day", expertly organised by Teagasc, in Athenry earlier this year. This event, which is recognised as one of the key annual display shows for the agricultural industry, included Rural Enterprise as a major complementary display. As well as the food halls, alternative farm enterprise and craft and small business stands, Galway Rural Development Company put together an excellent exhibition on the LEADER programme. The whole day was a resounding success with wide acclaim for the LEADER display in particular. I am convinced of the importance of training to the development of rural areas. Information Technology training in particular, is a means of providing new job opportunities by giving people the necessary skills and ability, to harness and manipulate this modern technology to their advantage. The application of Information Technology provides a tremendous opportunity to compete effectively and therefore to generate economic development in the region. As part of its commitment to ensure that investment made under LEADER is sustained into the future, Galway Rural Development is providing our communities here with the necessary training in Website management so that they will have the skills to manage their own Website locally.

LEADER groups can make a major contribution to rural development by developing strategies for overcoming the isolation experienced by community groups in rural areas. Galway Rural Development has developed a strategy to enable rural communities in Galway to exploit information technology. The key feature of this strategy, an IT programme, developed after widespread consultation with rural groups has been established and the group have committed a budget of £200,000 to this great project over the next 12 months. This will provide 50 rural communities with their own computer and Internet training and will also develop a countywide Internet site.

Participating communities have been invited to provide information and photographs on items of interest in their locality such as sporting clubs and events, local tourist attractions and business directories.

With a window to a potential audience of millions world-wide, this will be of enormous benefit to the communities from keeping in touch with our emigrants to attracting tourists both national and international and as a showcase for local crafts and businesses. I would encourage the entire community to participate in and avail of this exciting new development.

Since its introduction in 1995, LEADER has had a significant impact on the development of our rural areas. While the emphasis is on community development rather than employment creation, the approved groups have reported that over 2,000 new full time jobs can be attributed to LEADER activities in rural areas. A roughly similar number of jobs have been maintained. The programme has provided the conditions and support for the creation of over 1,000 small firms, craft enterprises and innovative local services and almost 400 new community groups have been established. These are impressive statistics by any standard and show the impact which the programme is having in rural Ireland. They do not, of course, reflect the equally important and valuable benefit to rural areas arising from the training, advice, support and encouragement which is provided to voluntary and community groups, small firms and individuals throughout the country.

While we in Government can do much to put the conditions in place to promote and facilitate development, at the end of the day, local and rural development is about people and the communities in which they all live. Rural communities are, in my experience, more than willing to contribute to their own development and we in Government, must ensure that our policies harness the enthusiasm, and in many cases, the untapped energies that reside therein. Certainly, in my view, Galway Rural Development is making a vital contribution in this area to the overall process. I would like to sincerely congratulate Mr. Denis Neylon and all of the staff and Board Members on their on-going work and for this far seeing imaginative project which will be of immense benefit to the people of Galway for many years to come, as we face the new millennium, with great confidence.