Ms Joanne Grehan:

The enterprise and investment unit at Mayo County Council works to deliver the environment for sustainable job creation which is important for all areas. It does this by facilitating access to all enterprise supports that are available locally and nationally. We would be the go-between the client and the supports available. The unit identifies and advocates for essential infrastructure. Mayo has Ireland West Airport which we are keen to see grow. We co-ordinate initiatives in key economic sectors. To this end, we undertook an emerging sectors report. Indications at this point are that tourism is a strong growth sector in the rural economy. With Mayo being the third largest county, it is predominantly rural. The unit will manage the transition to the local enterprise office in due course and promote the Mayo message, namely, that it is a good location for business enterprise and in which to live.

Mayo is one of Ireland’s best kept secrets and we may not have always been the best at telling our story. My previous role was with the Western Development Commission at which I co-ordinated the western regional tourism marketing programme for five counties in the west. That saw 14,000 new inbound passengers enter the region, generating €5.5 million in tourism revenue, of which €1.36 million in taxes went back to the State. By working together in partnership with the State agencies, we can deliver real results to a place.

Mayo has a population of 130,000 but a diaspora of 3.5 million around the world. We want to connect with these people who still have a strong connection with Mayo but we need to invite them to come home. The Gathering, obviously, played a large part in that. Accordingly, Mayo County Council established mayo.ie two years ago as a channel to communicate to our people around the globe. This website is an online comprehensive forum that covers news, events, information, business and tourism in Mayo and its 25 parishes. It is focused on what is happening in the county, so we can tell our people around the world what is happening in their local parishes. It also allows us to connect with our worldwide Mayo audience. We focus on business stories in the county so that people know it is a growing economy in the west. We also promote Mayo as a destination. The website also contains blogs, galleries, information on arts and crafts producers, as well as local artisanal food producers.

Over the past several months, we have developed a key strategic relationship with the National Geographic Society and its international genographic project which traces people’s DNA to extend it to the Mayo diaspora. I was one of the guinea pigs in this project and my DNA was traced back 70,000 years. I am about 2.3% Neanderthal which is slightly higher than the average.