FOCUS, HOPE, SYNERGY and RISKS
- Excerpts from reports
by Dr Brendan O’Keeffe, Niall Crowley, Debra Mountford, Seán
O’Riordan
“The introduction,
through a new committee (Socio-Economic Committee), of a Local and Community
Plan will give added focus to mainstreaming local, community and rural
development issues into local government services.
“More interestingly is
that this local effort will be underpinned by a national policy framework which
will be overseen by an inter-departmental committee, providing, hopefully, a
similar level of integration and policy alignment at the national level.
“Coming up with workable
models to do so is going to be a major challenge, but given the pressures on
communities across the State, no one will be thanked if local, rural and
community development are disrupted, no matter the benefits of underpinning
local democracy.
