Mr. Terry Keenan:

Ar son Forum Connemara, gabhaim buíochas leis an gcoiste as an gcuireadh teacht chuig an gcruinniú seo inniu agus ár dtuairimí a thabhairt faoi fhorbhairt tuaithe.

I thank the Chairman and his committee for the opportunity to address them today. Letterfrack is a village in north-west Connemara that has three pubs, a post office, a church, a Garda station and a national school. In the 1970s there was nothing in Letterfrack village but an old industrial school that had recently closed that had a chequered history, which is the best way of putting it at this stage. We changed that dark history into the epicentre of a vibrant community. The local community got together and started a company called Connemara West that then went on to develop a number of enterprises. In conjunction with Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, we developed a furniture design college that now has students coming out to our small village to learn how to develop top quality furniture design. We have also, through the company, developed a thatched cottage process and built a number of thatched cottages. They also started Connemara Community Radio, Foscadh and our company, Forum Connemara, which in 1989 began the delivery of a Combat Poverty programme. This was one of the first attempts at partnership in the country and we have delivered many more programmes since. In the Connemara West complex today we have 80 full-time and 200 part-time workers. My colleague, Mr. John Coyne, shall explain what we do in Forum Connemara.