This article is from page 7 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 7 JPG
has learned that Clare County Council has contracted the CM International group to pub- lish a Clare County Enterprise Strat- egy detailing a new way forward for business and enterprise in the county.
This strategy, which will be pub- lished next month, includes at its core a co-operative approach to de- velopment involving both the Uni- versity of Limerick and the National University of Ireland in Galway.
The report came before the Strate- gic Initiatives and External Affairs Committee of NUI, Galway last ete
“The report came before my sub- committee detailing information from Clare County Council recom- mending enterprise strategies for County Clare. Basically what is pro- posed is that Clare County Council co-ordinate all the major organisa- tion in the area including the County Development Board, RRD, NUI Gal- way, UL and anyone with the inter- ested in enterprise,” said Cllr Martin Lafferty (IND), who is a member of
the governing body of NUI, Galway.
“The idea is to form a committee to develop enterprise in the county. They are looking specifically at in- creasing the quality and quantity of research and development, increas- ing innovation and the quality and adaptability of the labour force.
“Clare County Council wouldn’t have the expertise for this kind of project but they are looking to co- ordinate the expertise that is avail- able in the area. They are lucky that we are sitting here between the two universities, one in Limerick and one in Galway. Galway university have a close relationship in Clare County Council and will be carrying out this initiative on their behalf.
“We have a number of organisa- tions already in Clare like Shannon Development, Enterprise Ireland and the County Development Board it- self.
In the minutes recorded for last week’s meeting of NUI, Galway’s Strategic Initiatives and External Af- fairs Committee commitments were given for the university to take a “leadership” role in the process.
A commitment was also given, in principle, to share intelligence with their client base in the county and to “define and elaborate the scope, role of an R&D transfer facility in the area of bio-medical engineering” in the county.