Vital Leader funding helping to create local jobs

At a time when good economic stories are about as rare as a soaring bank share, it is heartening to be reminded that there is still vigorous entrepreneurial activity taking place at a number of levels within the local economy here in Meath. Meath Partnership, formerly known as Meath Leader, which is charged with implementing rural economic development and social programmes throughout the county, has just been awarded funding of €12.75 million to facilitate growth and development of enterprises in Meath up to 2015. So successful has the Meath Partnership application to Government been that it has been given €2.2 million more than the national average, placing the county seventh in a league of 37 areas awarded funding. The initiative, which will help stimulate entrepreneurial activity throughout Meath and provide capital support for the creation of employment, has the capacity to deliver 400 new jobs, to sustain 500 jobs, create 90 new enterprises, to train 2,500 people and generate a total investment of €50m in the rural Meath economy. This sends out a very positive signal in the current economic climate and is a tribute to the success of the Leader programme in County Meath, spearheaded by Meath Partership"s dynamic CEO Michael Ludlow and a team of eight staff, aided by volunteer input. It is precisely this type of indigenous economic activity that will help to sustain many parts of rural Ireland through the deep recession currently afflicting the country. As long ago as last October, before any formal decisions on funding for the new Leader programmes were made, Meath Partnership had already received as many as 500 expressions of interest from individuals who wanted to set up enterprises in manufacturing, tourism, food and craft areas. Such a strong surge in applications for funding while the country was mired in economic difficulty is a very strong indication that local people with good business ideas see a future for local enterprise, and are set to defy the recession over the next couple of years. It is certainly most encouraging to see so many prepared to go out and take risks in the current climate, whether to set up a new business or expand an existing enterprise that will not only benefit themselves and their families but also the local community in which they are based. Many of these funding applicants will already have sourced their own private funding to match the State money now available to get them off the ground. Independent evaluation of the performance of the Meath Leader organisation over the past 15 years has shown that Meath Partnership now has the capacity to convert the €12.75m in State funding into as much as €50m through the leveraging of private equity. That is a very sizeable potential investment in growth and job creation and shows that, even at a time when the joblessnumbers if Meath have risen to almost 9,500, there is still a desire and a determination among local people not to lie down in the face of the national and global economic downturn and to try and build a better life for themselves, their families and their communities. The hope must now be that the expectation is matched by the reality and that successful businesses can be created from the opportunities which now exist.