Ryan Howard of East Cork says - Think positive!

PROFILE INTERVIEW 

Who’s your hero?

Nelson Mandela. And my late father was a great man, a hard worker.

Nationally, what do we need more of?

We need to move away from the negative and begin focussing in on the positives. There’s not enough good news being reported and it has a subliminal effect on us all.

“On the cusp of a huge opportunity” Interview with: Ryan Howard in Brussels

Ryan Howard

By Allen Meagher

“We’re standing on the cusp of a huge opportunity here,” claims Ryan Howard, talking about Ireland’s potential to unlock EU funds for communities from 2014 onwards.

From 18 months time, the European Commission (EC) proposes just one “programming tool” for all structural funds.

In doing so, the EC has given official recognition and backing to a process knows as Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) and Ireland is better prepared than most to make use of the funding that’s been earmarked.

For a country to have access – by the hundreds of million – it needs to have a network of local action groups in place to channel the funding.

Leading the field, Ireland already has a national network in place, namely the Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP).