Galway County Local Community Development Committee

Transcription

1 Galway County Local Community Development Committee Second Meeting Tuesday, 24 th June 2014 at 10.00am Council Chamber, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway LCDC Members in Attendance Cllr. Noel Thomas Cllr. Jimmy McClearn Cllr. Dermot Connolly Ms. Martina Moloney, Chief Executive Eoin Brown, Divisional Manager Frank Greene, President Sonya Nic Lochlainn, Feidhmeannach Sinsearach Pleanála agus Polasaí Josephine Lally, Social Inclusion Rep Frances O Reilly Dan Dowling Martin Ward, Social Inclusion Rep Delia Colahan, Chief Executive Officer Tom Turley, Connaught Chairman Terry Keenan, Chairperson Apologies Catherine Cunningham, Regional Manager David Leahy, Chief Executive Officer Present Kevin Kelly, Director of Services Ann Mallaghan, Administrative Officer Brian Barrett, Administrative Officer Breda Fox, Head of Local Enterprise Dept of Social Protection Galway Chamber Údarás na Gaeltachta Galway Rural Development Company Irish Farmers Association (IFA) FORUM Connemara HSE West GRETB Cllr. Jimmy McClearn welcomed everyone to the meeting including new members Josephine Lally, Frances O Reilly, Cllr. Noel Thomas and Cllr. Dermot Connolly. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn also welcomed Breda Fox, Head of Local Enterprise to the LCDC meeting. He stated that the Committee lost the former Mayor, Cllr. Liam Carroll due to the last election and thanked him for his contribution to the Committee. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn asked Kevin Kelly to outline the events/happenings since the last meeting. Kevin Kelly said that there has been a further set of guidelines issued from the Department which are non statutory. Kevin Kelly went through the membership of the LCDC as follows: 5 from Local Government 3 from State Agencies 2 from Local and Community Development 7 from Social Economic, Employers, Community Interests 1

2 The Committee, as it is presently constituted is therefore still an interim arrangement and its final membership will be subject to further discussion. 1. Election of a Chairperson 2. Election of Vice Chairperson 3. Minutes of Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) held on 15 th April 2014 The minutes of the meeting of the Local Community Development Committee held on the 15 th April 2014 were agreed on the proposal of Frank Greene and seconded by Sonya Nic Lochlainn. 4. Consideration of Standing Orders Dan Dowling raised a number of issues regarding the Standing Orders which he was proposing should be amended as they needed correction/ clarification. Specifically he raised the issue of the calculation of the proportion of the membership required to make particular resolutions as outlined on Page 7, paragraph He also proposed that perhaps agreements on changes to the Standing Orders could be agreed by members using . Kevin Kelly responded that those and any other amendments to the Standing Orders could be discussed when the Standing Orders were put formally to the full Committee when its membership had been finally agreed. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn outlined that compliance with regulations has become a bit of an issue for Galway County Council, which as a Front Runner had established a Committee in good faith in advance of much of the guidelines and guidance that were now issuing. As the Local Authority is still awaiting final guidelines from the Department there is still some work to do, to ensure compliance with the guidelines while also reflecting the needs of organisations in County Galway. Cllr. Dermot Connolly raised some concerns about the existing composition, and the situation regarding the guidelines on membership and that some elected members have raised the inclusion of the HSE in the membership. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn pointed out to Cllr. Dermot Connolly that it was not the remit of the LCDC to deal with such issues in this forum. A number of members of the Committee then raised a number of further issues relating to the Committee s membership including the membership of Comhar na noileán and confusion regarding the attendance of the additional representatives of the. Kevin Kelly firstly welcomed the two additional nominees from the and said that they were very welcome at the meeting. He explained that the LCDC was being advanced within tight timeframes and at the previous day s Council meeting the item to agree the proposed additional nominees had not been taken. The position had been relayed to the Chair of the the previous evening but the committee was still in non-statutory formation and he confirmed that they could 2

3 participate fully in the meeting. He also responded to the various points raised in relation to membership and informed the members that the composition of the Committee must be in accordance with the regulations and guidelines including the requirements relating to representation from specific groups and sectors. He explained that the Committee would have one more statutory agency on its Committee than is permitted even if membership is increased to 17 members. Terry Keenan referred to Page 5, Section D of the Regulations which permit for up to a maximum of three Local Development Companies to be represented on the Committee. Kevin Kelly accepted that that is the case; but that the regulations set out both the minimum and the maximum but do not deal with the difficulty of fitting all the relevant bodies on to a Committee of a fixed size. At the present prescribed maximum of 17 members, including Comhar na noileán would require the removal of another body from the membership. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn added that many groups had been in contact with him and other members with an interest in being represented on the Committee. Delia Colahan proposed that a case should be made for representation from the third Development Company in the County. It was proposed by Delia Colahan and seconded by Cllr. Dermot Connolly that Kevin Kelly should make a case to the Department for the additional place for Comhar na noileán. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn agreed that if the Committee membership could be increased from 17 members to 19 members this would not be an issue. Kevin Kelly explained that the case for more flexibility in the size and composition of the Committee had already been made to the Department and that efforts would continue to reach a more desirable outcome for County Galway. 5. This is Galway A Socio-Economic Analysis of County Galway Brian Barrett informed the meeting that the document entitled This is Galway which Valerie Kavanagh did a lot of work on had already been circulated to all members. He then gave a presentation on This is Galway. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn thanked Brian Barrett for giving the presentation and said that it was a very detailed analysis. Cllr. Dermot Connolly commented on page 14 HP Deprivation Index. He said that there is a need for focus in relation to economic regeneration. Programmes like Tús, RSS and such like have been crucial in terms of both services and employment in small towns and villages. He also referred to the threat to communities provided by the potential closure of local Post Offices. Josephine Lally commented that the presentation was very interesting, including the role deprivation has. However there is a need to look at emigration and the role it has played. Breda Fox asked if there was a full breakdown on unemployment. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn also commented that emigration levels and the impact it has on rural communities needs to be examined in the data. Dan Dowling raised a question about Monivea. Looking at the data, he was surprised that it had not benefited more from its relative proximity to Galway. 3

4 Martina Moloney thanked Brian Barrett and Valerie Kavanagh for the document and presentation. She commented on the significant trend in the population shift from rural to urban areas and she questioned how the statistics for over 65 s fits in with the Age Friendly Strategy that was launched in May. Sonya Nic Lochlainn questioned whether the plan would capture a lot of detail. Frances O Reilly asked if there was any data on the self employed. Martin Ward raised a number of issues. He asked what the plan would be able to do to identify training opportunities for young people. He pointed out that construction in Britain is booming, while he didn t want to be advocating emigration, it would be unwise not to be identifying opportunities for young people so nearby, and providing them with relevant training and information. He also pointed to the decline in economic activity in small towns. Finally, he pointed to Page 11, and to the reference to people from Northern Ireland as non-irish. There were also questions raised about the high proportion of young people in the unemployed category, and a further query as to why young people in the years age group would be categorised as unemployed. Brian Barrett responded to a number of the queries and comments raised by members. The maps in the report were all taken from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data and therefore are in the format they use, as are the titles they use in respect of treatment of Northern Irish. Regarding the question about the population decline in the Monivea area, Brian hypothesised that this could possibly be an issue with zoning or some other factor in relation to limitations on availability of land. It could also reflect travel to work times. He responded that the CSO data does include some data on the self employed, and that could be produced for the Committee. Kevin Kelly concluded by outlining that the purpose of Brian s presentation was simply to give Committee members a flavour of the type of data that could be extracted from available sources to give us a feel for the socio-economic basis of the County, identify key trends and also focus on questions or areas requiring further attention. It will be the Committee s job to ensure that the Plan is as relevant to County Galway as possible and to ensure that the outcome of the Plan will be to influence other groups and agencies, and in particular their programmes and expenditure to meet the greatest needs of the County s population groups. He confirmed that the Department are to issue Guidelines on the preparation of the Plan. 6. Progress report on the consultative process and preparation of the Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) Cllr. Jimmy McClearn introduced Item No 6. Ann Mallaghan circulated to all members a copy of the presentation to update on the progress in developing and consulting on the Local Economic and Community Plan. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn thanked Ann Mallaghan for her presentation and all the work that she has done on the consultation process. Martina Moloney commented that we need to make sure we are building on the Plan and the importance that ongoing consultation feeds into the Galway Age Friendly programme. 4

5 Martin Ward commented on the consultation meeting that he attended in Tuam and said that it had been most worthwhile and that he felt groups there had learned something from participating and that he looked forward to seeing what was included in the Plan. Frances O Reilly thanked Ann Mallaghan and said that she had attended two of the consultation meetings, one for the Older People s Council and one for the Tuam Area. She said that the approach taken had left people with no excuse for not being involved. 7. Discussion and Next Steps A short discussion followed on the next steps in relation to the Committee and the work on rolling out further stages of completing the Plan. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn asked if a date is set for completion of the Plan. Kevin Kelly outlined that there is a timeframe attached to the Plan, which at present is intended for completion by the end of the year. He did attach the caveat that the statutory guidance is still awaited from the Department. He suggested that there is a need to outline a schedule of meetings, and also to consider the idea of the LCDC members participating in a half day workshop, as outlined in the previous presentation. It would be necessary to put the proposed membership of the Committee to another Council meeting and it was proposed that the next meeting be scheduled for early September and that at that meeting, the members could discuss the possibility of convening for a short workshop to consider the themes or priorities for the Plan. 8. Schedule of Meetings The next LCDC meeting was scheduled for Wednesday 17 September at 10 am. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn added the he hoped all regulations will have issued by the time of the next meeting. Cllr. Jimmy McClearn advised that Martina Moloney has decided to leave on the 4 th July having been a real driving force in a number of areas including community development. He acknowledged Martina s contribution and wished her every happiness and success in the future. Frances O Reilly on behalf of the thanked Martina Moloney and said that they appreciated everything that she did. Martina Moloney thanked Cllr. Jimmy McClearn and Frances O Reilly for their words and said that she has great confidence that the LCDC will work. 5