Mr. Seán de Buitléar:

In relation to innovation, South Kerry Development Partnership has been to the fore in the last number of years in targeting other sources of funding for rural regions, in particular through the EU-funded INTERREG programmes. Under the current round of funding alone, approximately €650 million is available in just three schemes. One is talking about the INTERREG 5B programme, Atlantic areas and the peripheral regions programmes. There is substantial funding out there but we are being hampered. It is an accident in a way because we were always creative in how we came up with the matched-funding element. We have a very experienced CEO here who was always to the fore in coming up with creative ways to match funding. However, part of the funding we used to use will be under the local community development programme and that funding is now under SICAP and there is a European element gone into it. As such, we cannot use that funding in any shape or form as a source of matched funding for any of the transnational programmes. Therefore, we are left in a little bit of a limbo. There is a solution, however. It is a solution that many other countries in the programmes have put in place. It involves the creation of a matched-funding programme for such initiatives. It is something that could be funding either through ring-fencing lottery funding or through the dormant accounts scheme. One is not talking about substantial amounts of funding, but if the country is to achieve its maximum input in terms of access to European projects, one is talking potentially about €2 million per year from Irish matched-funding sources to access €10 million, plus, in EU-funded projects. The other advantage, which is significant at the moment given the Brexit situation, is that the programmes allow us to establish contact with partners in similar regions in other European countries. That enables small companies, farmers and tourism sources to build contacts and look at new markets and opportunities and new ways of doing things. As such, there are substantial benefits to be got from taking part in these programmes.

A very simple move in terms of creating some sort of matched-funding opportunity for the likes of the partnerships to be able to go out there and access that funding would be very welcome and would greatly benefit rural communities. In terms of management, it is simply managed. There is no need for additional bureaucracy. One has the Southern Regional Assembly which is the auditor of the vast majority of these programmes in Ireland and it is already doing the paperwork. The assembly would be fully supportive of the putting in place of such a programme. It is something that could be made available relatively quickly.

The other point is around policy. It was mentioned earlier that policy tends to limit opportunities in rural regions. There is nowhere that comes to the fore more than in the area of energy. It is not all about rural areas looking for handouts or supports from Government, it is about enabling rural communities to derive sources of income for themselves and develop social enterprises. One area that could be tapped into is one we have seen in rural communities throughout Europe and that is renewable and sustainable energy. Many of those resources exist in rural areas but because of the particular issue in Ireland of access to the grid, there is no way in the world that communities that want to start energy co-operatives to put in, for example, a 2.5 MW wind turbine can proceed. They are simply not in a position to compete with commercial interests in terms of accessing grid connection. Therefore, substantial objections are made in many instances to private companies coming to rural areas to put up renewable energy assets where the income goes straight out of those communities.

There is no reason communities cannot be enabled to set up properly governed and structured energy co-operatives to allow them to exploit energy resources for themselves while keeping the income in rural areas. That would provide those communities with the opportunity to undertake proper forward planning in circumstances where they would know they had an income stream coming down the line. However, that takes a decision at policy level to say that a particular portion of the available grid connectivity will be ring-fenced and made available for genuine community projects. I am involved in an EU initiative which is at stage 2 in terms of an INTERREG project which is looking at providing the resources to put those co-operatives in place, structure them and develop a community-owned energy co-operative in the south Kerry region. That model could be replicated nationally. We are basing it on the learnings we have seen from other European countries and the opportunities available there. There are a number of opportunities which could assist us.