Laois Partnership Company will officially launch their new LEADER Programme for 2023-2027 next week.
The official launch event will take place on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, in the Laois Partnership Company Office, Portlaoise with an online launch on Thursday, July 11.
The LEADER Programme has been supporting and initiating projects and actions throughout Ireland for over three decades.
Laois Partnership Company has delivered LEADER across County Laois since the 1990s and throughout this time it has made a significant contribution to economic and community development.
It has played an integral role in supporting job creation, social inclusion and environment projects at local level.
There are many achievements and success stories from LEADER in Co. Laois, including Aerial Agri Tech – an innovative start-up business established in 2015, the development of the Fab Lab Facility at Portarlington Enterprise Centre, the development of the Cullohill Community Plan and the Ballykilcavan Microbrewery enterprise just outside Stradbally to name just a few.
Innovation has formed a key element of LEADER since its inception and it has enabled communities and businesses to initiate innovative approaches to tackle issues of rural disadvantage, unemployment, climate change and protection of the environment.
The cornerstones of both Laois Partnership Company and the LEADER Programme are to improve the quality of lives for citizens and to make local communities a better place to live and work.
The new programme will build on the achievements of previous LEADER funding and will continue to support a wide range of sectors including farm diversification, small and medium enterprise, rural tourism, heritage, town and village renewal, community facilities and amenities, renewable energy and environmental projects.
The LEADER programme is a key intervention of ‘Our Rural Future’, the Government’s Policy for rural development (2021) which aims to deliver a range of actions to support rural communities and is funded via the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD).
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