Community Matters 14jan2025

Cunnamara Credit Union is sponsoring a series of workshops for businesses and start-ups in the area. The workshops will cover topics such as social media, financial and tax, marketing, and AI. The first workshop will focus on the basics of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Other workshops will cover VAT returns, marketing techniques, employing for the first time, and grant aid and funding. All workshops will be delivered online via Zoom and registration is required. The Lean Launch Program, a full-day in-person program, will also be available for anyone starting or launching a business. It focuses on market research and testing the business model. The program has received positive feedback in the past and is in high demand. News 3 Matters is kindly sponsored by Cunnamara Credit Union Limited, incorporating Clifton, Tully Cross and Carnda branches. Cunnamara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Cunnamara area. Main office, Clifton and Tully Cross branch, 09521101. Good evening everyone and welcome to this week's Community Matters programme here on Cunnamara Community Radio with me, Maureen Corbett, who will be with you between now and eight o'clock with this evening's programme. Now as always, our producer has lined up lots of interesting guests for us this evening. My first will be Anne-Marie Costolo, an acting staff officer with local enterprise office in Galway, to tell us about their upcoming series of workshops that are beginning in February and run through March and they're in relation to general supports for businesses and start-ups in the area. Then I will be speaking with Damien Peele, the CEO with the organisation TOR, to tell us about their services to young parents who are unmarried and their expansion of their current teen parent programme is going to expand in Galway. And then we will be speaking with local events chairperson, Richard De Stakpel, who's with Roundstone Community Council and he'll be on to tell us about last year's Roundstone 200 celebrations and any updates on the current and future projects that are in the pipeline for the Roundstone community. And last but not least, I will be speaking with Mary McGann, who is the age-friendly programme manager but also oversees the Community Support Scheme with Galway County Council and she'll be on to tell us about the Community Support Scheme 2025, which is open currently for applications and she will have all the details on that before we finish this evening at 8 o'clock. So as I say, lots coming up so I do hope you can stay with me. Now my first guest is on the line now and Anne-Marie Coslow, welcome to Community Matters and good evening. Thank you. Good evening. It's lovely to have you on the programme, Anne-Marie. Now I know you're with local enterprise Galway and they are very much involved in assisting small businesses in meeting the challenges of the business world and also in providing a wide range of high-quality training supports which are tailored to meet specific business requirements. Now I know we have a lot to talk about. I have a list here of the very detailed and wide range of topics that are going to be covered in the upcoming workshops but you might tell the listeners what they include and what the type of content will be. Yes. Well, first of all, we have our short courses now and they will start now in February. They are spring courses and we have an extensive list of short courses available on our website localenterprise.ie.gov.uk and they can range from social media workshops, financial, tax and bat, marketing, AI. Now our first training workshop will start on the 11th of February and that's the beginner's guide to social media and it's really getting down to the basics whether it's Facebook, Instagram, X and I know a lot of people are saying at this stage, most people know how to use the basic social media but there's a lot of small business out there that are probably scared of using social media and that's why we tailor these workshops for small businesses and how to get in the basics or getting maybe some of the staff trained up on keeping up with their competitors as well. So there's always huge demand for the beginner's guide to social media and most of the time, we always have to run a second or a third workshop due to high demand and it just basically goes through just the Facebook, how to use it, how to do videos and the same with Instagram. Now it'll go through the basic. Now we have more extensive workshops let's say in Instagram like making reels and videos and all that. But there'll be separate ones that you'll run at a later date then? This is the first one? This is the beginner's guide? Yes. Okay. It's like an introduction to social media platforms? Yes. Okay. And then we run like other workshops which are always big demand which is the VAT returns. People are great in their business but sometimes a lot of people have difficulty with the VAT and the tax and the financial side of business and they try to avoid it. So this just gives them the step-by-step guide on how to do a VAT return at the end of each year. We also do the marketing techniques and how important marketing is for any business. And a new one now we're doing this year is employing for the first time and what they need to know and the complexities involved in the employment process. And another just new one that we're doing a lot of the same ones but we're just picking out a few new ones now that we're doing this year. Another one is the grant aid and funding and that's a new one there and that's just going through all the supports that we have available, all the grants, loans which the microfinance support and what should be included in your profit and loss accounts, budgeting information and when people are sending out grants, application forms, just give them an insight of what we're looking for and how the application form will be evaluated and for them to focus on that then and put the correct information on the application form because we do see a lot of application forms coming in and the bare minimum is on the application. We can only score by what's in front of us so that's a very important thing. And a lot of the forms can be a little bit complex and a little bit, the language may be a little bit difficult to understand maybe or to comprehend and to have a little bit. They'll go through that with them, yes. So it's a great, it's a short, just a half day workshop, three hours from 10 until 1 and so we are seeing a lot of bookings coming in for it so if the demand is there, we'll definitely put on another workshop for that particular one. Okay, are most of them, how are they all being delivered firstly? Are they in person, are they online or how are they being delivered and rolled out? Yeah, all these short courses now, they're all delivered online via Zoom. So yes, since COVID-19, we had to change them all to Zoom online but you know, it's got very popular and especially now, we used to have them in person but then, you know, with parking and traffic and all that, people seem happy with the online, you know, they can do it in the comfort of their own home or... Exactly, there's no travel involved and as you say, no issues like parking and it's very simple, they can just log on. I'm imagining it's very... Now that gets to the topic, do they have to register with you first and express an interest or have they register for a particular workshop? Yeah, you'd have to register for all the workshops because a lot of them are limited to about 12, 15 people per workshop, so there's a limited amount of availability, yeah, so they'd all and they're highly subsidised, all these workshops. So for example, let's say a 3-hour workshop is about €15 and or a 2-half day workshop which would be 6 hours, it's usually about €25 but they're highly subsidised through the local enterprise office. Okay, but as you said, numbers are limited, so it's on a first come, first served basis, I would imagine. Exactly, exactly, first come, first served, yeah and I find right after Christmas now, the demand is always that bit higher, you know, because people are, you know, New Year's resolutions and new ideas and which is great, great to see. Can I just mention another workshop now that we have, a programme actually that we have coming up, it's the Lean Launch Programme, we will have full details on that on the website by the end of the week, that will be starting on the 27th February and that's an in-person programme because it's 6, 7 different modules and they're a full day module, so it takes a bit of commitment for this particular one but it's for anybody starting or launching a business and it focuses a lot on the market research, getting out there, finding out who and where your customers are and that's run by our trainer called Declan Droney and he was the founder and the former owner of Converis Smoked Salmon but it's very hands-on, he's an excellent trainer, very goals orientated and you get to immediately start testing the business model. So for anyone really starting or launching a business, most of the time they will need direction and yeah, it's very interactive, setting goals, learn to pitch your business, learn to do a business plan and basically get you out there and start testing the model. Yeah, it sounds very relevant and it sounds very timely that it's coming up now, especially at this time of the year for anyone who is planning on launching a business of any description or of any size model, I would imagine it would be relevant to anyone and that's starting on the 27th February and as you say, it's called the Lean Launch and the details are just starting to appear on the website but keep an eye on it and further details will be up there shortly, is it? Yeah, we're just finalizing the last few details on that actually, yeah but that's a very popular one now that we can only take for 12 on that because it's an in-person so there is a bit more commitment involved in that and there is a bit of work, it's not kind of going into a classroom and sitting down and listening, it's very much getting involved and pricing your product and finding out what profit you're going to make at the end of the year so it is definitely a worthwhile program and excellent feedback on it from past participants, yeah. So, this isn't the first time it's run? No, it's actually now, this one is our 20th program actually for the Lean Launch program now, yeah so it's a big demand for it, yeah. Just to go, touching back to the workshops again and the short courses that we were chatting about and when you listed a few of them, you mentioned AI a couple of times, that kind of caught my ear, is that becoming more and more relevant in business now and how is it becoming so and how is it being used or how can it be used, how can an AI tool then be used for example in the business model? Yeah, well the AI, it's, well this particular workshop now, it's a three-hour workshop so we do a short, for the AI we do a short workshop just to kind of give people the idea and that's run by Ken McHugh, he's from Left Hand Productions, he's excellent now with all things AI and social media and we use him for a lot of our training workshops and it's always excellent feedback on him and you basically get through the practical ways that it can increase productivity, save you time, promote your company and it equips you with the knowledge and practical examples needed to leverage AI tools effectively and this is really meaningful business outcomes. So it's, you can use these tools to generate social media, website, blog content, tools for business process and customer services, edit videos, photos, so it's a huge, it's quite detailed but this kind of will give you a taster of it, chat GPT, select the other one on it and yeah, so he does give quite extensive notes after each one of these courses that he does and a lot of links as well, getting into different, because you can give, he only has three hours so he can only give so much information but he did get further links to get into more information that they can start learning themselves. I also point you in the right direction for a follow on workshop or a course again that might be coming up in the near future if you felt that that would be suitable as well for anyone that was there on the day. Oh exactly, exactly yeah, we probably will be doing more advanced AI but I think as of now, I think people are happy with the kind of beginners AI as of now but you know, I say that's probably the change. Have any of them filled up with, you know, attendees at this stage or do they all still have places and if anyone goes on the website and looks them up, should there still be places left in the majority of them or all of them at the moment? At the moment we do, we do still have availability but just since this week now I've seen a lot of bookings coming through there. They're currently still up, yeah. But yeah, we do still have availability but you know, since it's limited amount of spaces, they probably will, most of them by the time the date comes, they will be all booked out but we can run more workshops, you know, we're flexible and adaptable. Just give the listeners now, they've just tuned in, they've just copied in the website again and the links to where they can find out the information on the local enterprise office and the support they provide and also then in relation to the workshops and the short courses. Yeah, so if they just log on to localenterprise.ie forward slash Galway and that will bring them right into our website and then you'll see the link for training and events and then if they go into short courses, it gives a full list of all our short courses and where you can book them there as well. It gives you a brief description of each of the workshops and how much they cost, what time they're on and it just says each one is online. They're all in the monthly, so we have them all done up to the end of the year actually, so we're very, very organised here in Galway. So we've done them up to the end of October, all our workshops, so people are very, very organised, they can book ones out for, let's say, even September or October. Yeah, yeah. That's brilliant. You can plan in advance, yeah. And when the workshops are over, I know you said that some notes are sometimes given out but is anything available, is there any kind of slides or presentation or notes or any information, if you missed it, that you could go in and have an overview of it after the workshop had taken place or the short course was finished or is that an option as well? Yeah, most of the trainers now would give a PDF or a PowerPoint presentation on the notes and some, not all trainers, but some of them would record the session and they can listen back to it in the long term, which is good, especially things like AI or people if they're social media, if it's a beginner's class and they just need the time, they can pause it and learn it in their own time, so it really depends on the trainer, but definitely they all will give presentation notes after each of the workshops, yeah. Oh, and also from the workshops, if they want to do like mentoring, a lot of these trainers are mentors as well with ourselves, so if they felt after a, if they're in a class of 15 people, if they felt they needed the one-to-one after that, we also do mentoring in a lot of different areas for the social media. It's good to know. Yeah. Listen, Anne-Marie, thanks so much for coming on Community Matters this evening and giving us that vital information on the series of upcoming workshops and short courses and the services that are provided there by yourselves in the local enterprise office in Galway. Thank you so much and have a lovely evening. No problem, thank you. Take care. Now, that was Anne-Marie Costolo, the acting staff officer with the local enterprise office in Galway, but do stay with us, we're going to take the ad break now, but we have our next guest coming up in a few moments. Westport-based chiropodist Martin McNally will be doing home visits in the Connemara area on Thursday, the 16th of January. If you would like to make an appointment, please call him on 087-222-6260. Don't miss out on our biggest sale ever at Clifton Station House Leisure Centre. 15% off six and 12 month memberships, swimming lessons and fitness classes. Let's sweat, smile and succeed this new year in the Clifton Station House. Call 095-30433 to avail of this fantastic sale or pop into us. We are happy to help. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. It's sale time at Brodericks Electrical, Castle Bar and Westport. Our January sale has started, so call in and grab yourself a bargain. With everything reduced, now is the time to upgrade your kitchen appliances or treat yourself to the latest technology. So if you're looking for the best brand at the best prices, make sure to call into Brodericks Electrical or look us up online at broderickselectrical.ie, 09828130 for Westport, 0949044735 for Castle Bar. Clifton Supply Centre, Galway Road, Clifton. Provide building supplies, plumbing and heating supplies, fuel merchants, DIY and general hardware. Contact the Clifton Supply Centre on 095-21476. Welcome back. You're listening to Community Matters here on Connemara Community Radio. Now, my next guest is on the line now, and I'm delighted to welcome Damien Pilo, the CEO with the organisation, TROR. Good evening, Damien, and welcome to Community Matters. Good evening, Maureen. Thanks very much for having me. We're delighted to have you on the programme this evening, Damien. Now, TROR provide a confidential specialist information service for parents who are not married to each other, whether they're living together or apart, their extended families and those who are working with them. What type of supports are provided by the organisation, firstly? Well, we do a number of different supports, but mainly through the National Information Service, we provide legal information, hopefully made simple for parents who don't live together or who are separated in relation to guardianship, access, custody, maintenance, all those issues that people end up often in dispute with. We also provide literature and information in a range of ways to those parents and training and supports. And then we run a number of national programmes. We provide a young parent support programme, which we'll hopefully talk to you tonight about, and a kinship care programme, which is the care of children who are natural biological children, usually like grandparents and their uncles, and we also run a shared parenting support programme, which promotes and encourages parents who are not living together to go down the route of sharing the parenting of their children rather than the conflictual adversarial routes of the court. There are a number of our support programmes. Now, we mentioned there the teen parent programme support is set to evolve and expand in Galway. Now, it's been running for about 25 years so far, I believe, has it? That's right, and you'd be delighted to know that Galway was one of the first projects, so Galway, under the former Minister of State, Frank Fahey, back in 1999, were one of the first pilots, the first three to be piloted out of the maternity hospital there in Galway. And it's because of the success of that and actually because of a Galway woman, Julie Lawler, who was working in maternity hospitals and saw that there was a need for support, the wraparound service of support to young parents, that if you didn't provide it, she was saying, look, I'm seeing these young children coming back to me in years again with more babies, with additional issues, with additional problems, and often the children end up in the care of the state. And she was saying if we can, she spoke to Minister Fahey and she said, look, if we can reach them at that crucial point in their lives, we can prevent these children from going into care. And that has been primarily the main success of the teen parent support programme, which has now become the young parent support programme, was supporting mothers and fathers to hold on to their children, to give to the children themselves and keep and continue their own lives and their own education while maintaining a lot of additional support. So it started in Galway with three pilots and expanded to 11 over the last 25 years. And because of that impact and because of the success of the programme, Toosla have also now wanted to have support to grow to become the young parent support programme to extend the age from 19 to 24. So with bigger catchments of parents potentially coming into the programme. And not only the age, we're also extending the 11 sites to, it will be 20 sites by the end of the phase of the programme, which is wonderful. So that wherever you are in the country, you hopefully will have access to the young parent support programme if you need it. That sounds hugely beneficial, and I'm sure there is a very wide need for it. Now, I know the age of parents has gone up from 19 to 19 to now under 24 under the new young parent programme, and it's expanding into different areas that it wasn't in before. But is it also, is it going to remain engaged for any longer with the parents of the child, or is it going to have the same cut off? And what was the cut off? Were they just supporting them through the first year previously? Or what was the framework? Well, initially it was that, and in the very early days it was as the parent needed it. But best practice and evidence has shown that if you can get that support for 1,000 days of the young child's life, you give much more opportunities for the mother and father to bond with their child, to become experts in their own parenting support, and maintain their education and support and all the other things. So the actual programme now is going to, that's now standard across the way, is to expand that support to the first 1,000 days of the child's life, which I think is just roughly about three years of the child, two out of three, which is a really important developmental phase. And all the evidence, again, has shown that if you can put the support into place then and give that child the early developmental supports that they require, you do so much better for the long-term development of the child and the mother and the father, and for the benefits of the later adulthood. So that's wonderful news that you can, so that a parent coming in from prenatal to having the baby and going on will now know that they can get that support for 1,000 days, which is fantastic. Yes, and will both programmes continue to run simultaneously, or will they amalgamate into one? Well, they will now, it's technically a change now to the young parent support programme, but because some of the existing teen parent support programmes haven't received their European funding, social funds, because this programme came under European social funds, TUSA and the Department of Children applied to European social funds with source help, and they received this money, it's a staggered approach. So as the new sites come on board and as the existing sites begin to take and expand the age range, they become the young parent support programme. So some of the existing sites of the 11 won't have received the new funding and ability to employ new workers yet. So while they're still now called the young parent support programme, it technically still, until they get the resources in, will only be still working with the younger age group. So eventually, and after the three years, you will stop using the term... They will have become amalgamated, yeah. Yes, all the young parent support programme. And it's a wonderful, because as we know, again, that when young parents come in, one of the major issues for young parents, apart from the fact that they are very young, and often the pregnancy was unplanned, and often that they're in the minority on their own, you know, as a young parent giving birth, they don't know many other young parents. So loneliness and isolation are some of the big issues. So the peer support spaces that the local projects can provide is really important. Obviously, the practical supports around parenting, health and well-being, both for the child, for the mother, is really important. We have a ring-fence funding from the school completions programme, which is run by TUSA, which is a support for parents who either want to go back to education or remain in education. It's a particular fund that's available to those parents to help them to continue, because we know that education attainment and the lack of thereof has long-term consequences in terms of income generation. So that's really important. We know that housing is a major issue for young parents, for anybody now in Ireland, but particularly for young parents. So very practical supports around housing applications, you know, helping parents with able to go and see properties and rental properties and making your council applications if you're going to be eligible for social housing. Mental health and well-being is really important. And then all the legal information, because often with young parents, they're not together, they're not married, and there's all those issues that emerge in relation to the guardianship access plus the maintenance payments. And a big, big part of the Young Parents Support Programme, and one of the big things that we saw under the European Social Fund criteria was that really to try harder to engage the fathers. That's a really welcome thing that SOAR has really fought hard to try and do over the course of the last 25 years to some success, but often it's very hard to engage fathers. So we're making a renewed effort with all the new programmes that fathers will be built in to the support networks very early on. That doesn't mean that they have to be in a relationship with the mother, it just means that they too will get the support they need to take on that caring role as fathers in relation to, you know, being a parent for their own children. And what are the biggest barriers there that are preventing them from doing that currently? Well, often it's fear. It's the fact that they are very much stigmatised in terms of the fact that they have made this person pregnant and they get a huge amount of blame and shame in relation to that. And often, you know, they don't know what role they can play, particularly if they're not in a long-term relationship or in a relationship with the mother, they don't know how best they can play a role in relation to the child's wellbeing. And so often they've stayed on the margins and the services haven't brought them in from the margins, so the services like even the maternity services are directed towards the mother. But even after that, you know, it's like how do you engage with the father? How do you bring that person in to engage with parenting support programmes? Their education of this and their caring role that they need to take on. So it's a lot of that and address that and that peer support with other dads, letting them understand that they can be, you know, very good fathers too, even if they're young, that they can take on that caring and parenting support role. So there are some of the barriers that I've addressed in there and just that fear of being a parent. And it's probably made more difficult by the fact, A, that they're young, as we said, but also that they may not be living with the mother either and, you know, living separately. Exactly. Yeah. And they may not have their own and they may not have their own place to bring their children to from, so they have to rely on their parents and parents, even with the best will in the world, can be, can get in the way of the relationship being thinking, oh, look, it's better for you to not to have that father involved or it's better for you to stay away and let the mother rear the child and it's better for you. So often the advice has been to try and, well-intentioned, but often has been in a way that has prevented the fathers from being involved and being engaged because it does require you to share that parenting and that role of carer and that role of parent. And some people find that that's a challenge and more difficult to do, especially if you don't see eye to eye and you don't agree on the ways in which you think it's appropriate to bring up your child. So these are really important things and that's why the shared parenting aspect is really important to come alongside it. How do you find agreements around? So for anybody, not just imagine how hard that is when you're at any stage of your life, but particularly for a teen or a very young parent, how they manage to try and work out those conflicts and to try and reach agreements about how they want to raise their child, what's in their child's best interest. And often it's society said mothers have instincts and dads don't, so often dads are left out of that very important caring role as a young baby. Are you starting to see that they're starting to become more involved? Is that changing? Yes, we're starting to see it. There's a lot of programmes and a lot of supports, more supports, not a lot. There are more supports out there that targeted fathers. But again, the research levels have shown us that if we don't make the effort to really bring fathers in, they won't naturally come to the door. There are barriers that they feel are there, hidden and often unseen barriers that they believe are there that are not going to be welcomed in. So much more effort has to be done by us and the service providers to reach out and encourage the dads to be involved. But yes, all the evidence and all the international evidence is showing that men want to have more of a caring role in relation to their children. Women want men to have more of a caring role in relation to their children. So in some ways it's a no-brainer, but it's just how do we get to that point and that practical point of being able to engage both mum and dads in the upbringing of their children and in the best interest of their child. And where anyone that's listening now, where can, I know obviously Tror has a website, what are the details, the website details, the phone number or whatever for anyone that's listening? Yeah, you can go on to youngparents.ie which is the website for the Young Parents Support Programme to find out where the nearest Young Parents Support Programme is to you. And you can dial the Tror office on 016700120 and we can pass you off to the appropriate person depending on what your needs are in relation to the Young Parents Support Programme. But youngparents.ie and 016700120. Okay, lovely. Listen Damien, thank you so much for taking the time to come on Community Matters this evening. It's been our pleasure to have you. It's been wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you and have a lovely evening. You too. Bye-bye. You're listening to Connemara Community Radio on H7.8 and 106.1 FM. If you have family or friends living away from Connemara, you can tell them to check out our website on www.connemarafm.com. I'll see you next weekend. Now, you're listening to Community Matters here on Connemara Community Radio. Now, 2024 was a huge year of celebratory events for Roundstone, the village and its community. And my next guest played a significant role in helping to make all of it happen and continues to do so. I'm delighted to welcome Richard DeStackpool, the Events Chairperson with the Roundstone Community Council. Good evening, Richard, and welcome to Community Matters. Good evening, Maureen. This has taken us to a very nice introduction. Yes, absolutely. Delighted to have you this evening, Richard, and thanks for taking the time to come on here with us this evening. Now, as I mentioned there, last year unfortunately is over, but it's not gone from memory just yet. And it was a huge year, the 200th birthday or anniversary of the village of Roundstone since Alexander Nemo established it in 1824. Now, I know there was a huge series of events that rolled out across the year. We won't have time to go into all of them right now. But just looking back, how was it from your perspective and from the Community Council and from the people of Roundstone's perspective, how did it all go? Well, I think very quickly, I think the way to look at it, it was very successful. We brought in obviously various sorts of, how can I put it, you know, letters, all to do with the arts, also more importantly to do with the history of Roundstone. And so, I mean, as you just correctly said, I mean, I can't go through all the events, but it did bring a real interest from the basic community themselves, but also from visitors, you know, what Roundstone really represents, because as you know, the first 100 years wasn't celebrated. And so we were determined to do it this year. And what it did do, Maureen, was that, okay, I mean, our sort of various events were fairly humble, but we got certain recognition, you know, from the Galway County Council, from the arts, from the heritage and what have you. And I think our timing was absolutely right to have their help and support in basic funding. But also what it did do is that, I don't know whether you know already, we're in the process of refurbishing the community hall, which is the heart of any small community. So between the events that we did, which I would like to think they were successful, you know, Galway County Council then eventually got in touch with us, because we work with them right through the year, you know, through various, how can you call, grants approval from them, you know, for the climate action, for the community centre investment funds, sustainable energy. So it brought a lot of new things into the village. And I think that's the most important thing, what happened this year, if that makes sense to you. It does, absolutely. Now, I know you mentioned the Galway County Council and the grants and the funding. And I know that one notable success was the story map trails for Innisfree and Roundstone. Tell us a little bit about those, Richard, please. Yeah, well, actually, this is very interesting, because this was, it all started, basically, I'm sure you know about Michael Halliday, who wrote the book about Roundstone. And then a certain person got in touch with me, I don't mind mentioning her name, was Mrs. Lannigan. She's been a visitor for years in Roundstone. Her expertise is all in history and heritage. So she was the one that actually started what they call the Roundstone trail map, celebrating 200 years. And it's a small little map. It's just gone into publication. And we hope that this year, in fact, I've just received them only about four or five weeks ago, to distribute them, which is a little storybook that talks about all the important buildings within Roundstone. And I'm talking about Inishlack, and I'm also talking about Inishnee and various other important points that Roundstone has had within the last 200 years. In the same time, through Michael Halliday, who wrote the book, we now do heritage walks, walking with the map and having a more, how can I put it, a more detailed story about each site that is actually shown. And so that's, I mean, you're right, what you just said, the story map has played a huge part. And we will carry on this particular walk and this particular map, which will be promoted for the year 2025. And I think that's the whole point of the events that we had in 2024, is those some very good things that we had. They were successful and we'll bring them right through in the year 2025 into 26. We'll still keep on doing it. So somebody could just pick up one of the story map trails for the area and without even having a guide, if they wanted to take a walk themselves, they could follow the trail and also find out a little of the history, a little of the story behind the sites and the heritage themselves as they follow the trail. Absolutely, Maureen. And then, I mean, we're doing a double take here because also there will be a guided walk at the same time with this particular map. I think people like to get together with somebody who speaks very well, i.e. like Mike, and just it's a two and a half hour basically. But yeah, you're exactly right. It's exactly that. Oh, brilliant. Now, I know time doesn't stand still for any of us and that there's always more work to be done in any village or any community to try and improve the village lifestyle and the facilities that are contained within it. What are the main priorities for 2025 for you and the Community Council and the plans for development for Roundstone? Maureen, it's very much the community hall at the moment. Okay. I'm sure, I don't know how much you actually know about it, but I'm sure you are aware, we are about to start what they call stage one of the refurbishment of the community hall. In fact, we're starting next week. And this stage one is all to do with proper installation of the roof and the walls, solar panels, electrics and, of course, LED lighting throughout the whole premises. That's stage one. And that should be completed, in fact, within eight weeks. And then stage two, it will include an extension of the reception room area and upgrade the restrooms. You know, you're talking about the ladies and gentlemen and what have you. And then stage three, there'll be the upgrade of the kitchen, new balcony area, et cetera, et cetera. This is going to take about two and a half years. But the year 2025, as far as the Community Development Council, we still have to apply every year, you know, for grant aid. We were very lucky through Marie Mannion that the Climate Action Program that we filled in last year, a 16-page document, I have to say, it's not an awesome thing to do, but we got it to start stage one. So stage two, now we have to apply for two more grants, which is the Community Centre Investment Fund. And also, I think LIDA is now coming on track. So it's going to be ongoing for the next two and a half years, through as much fundraising, thank God for Galway County Council and the grants that are available. So RGC, the Royal City Development Community Council, we are very much in touch with all these officers of various groups and what have you to support us to completely refurbish the community hall. I mean, I've just said that in a nutshell. It's a lot more complicated, but you asked the question. Yeah, it's a process and a complex one and a time-consuming one for everyone involved. But with the eye on the end prize, I'm sure it'll all be well worth it in the end. And the new refurbishment of the community hall project will be stunning when it's completed. And we won't feel two and a half years going by, Richard. We didn't feel the last two and a half years, I'm sure. And it's not just gone fast, 76 years. It just feels like a flash in the dark. I hear what you're saying. Before we know it, you'll be on here again, hopefully, to tell us it's complete. And you're having an open launch night and a party to celebrate in the hall. I'm a great party man. You have to have a party, Richard, and you have to invite me. I'll have a quick walk and say, hey, here we go. OK, listen, Richard, it's been lovely having you on the program this evening, as always. And best of luck with it all. I know it's still an ongoing project, but best of luck with it all. And I know it'll come to fruition in the very near future. OK, and thank you for your support, Maureen. The radio gets everything out there so that everything is transparent. So it's good that you gave me this opportunity to see me. And I thank you for that. You're delighted, Richard. Have a lovely evening. And thanks again. OK, God bless. Bye-bye. Stay with us. We are going to an ad break. 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LightNet high-speed broadband offers you the best solution, with reliable connectivity, a fixed IP address for stable VPN connection, and free high-spec award-winning Wi-Fi hub for all your broadband needs. Call LightNet today, 091 395 804, or visit lightnet.ie. Welcome back, you're listening to Community Matters here on Connemara Community Radio. Now, Galway County Council are currently inviting applications onto the Community Support Scheme for 2025, and my final guest this evening is on the line now to tell us all about this. Good evening, Mary McGann. Good evening, Maureen. Mary, you are the age-friendly Program Manager, but you also have oversight of the Community Support Scheme with Galway County Council. I am indeed, I wear a few hats. I think everybody does in the public sector these days, but it's lovely to have you on the program, and thanks for taking the time, and you're most welcome. Thank you. Now, the Community Support Program provides annual financial support across three distinct schemes. They are the Economic Development Scheme, the Community Development Scheme, and the Cultural Development Scheme. Now, starting with the Economic Development Scheme, Mary, you might tell us who exactly can apply and how much funding will be available. Well, of course, Maureen. I suppose, first of all, the schemes are funded by Galway County Council every year, and they're effectively about encouraging and promoting our community and voluntary groups to take an active part in developing their local communities, and I suppose we're very aware and very, I suppose, very happy that there's such a huge voluntary input across all parts of the county. So, the Economic Development Support Scheme has two categories within it. So, the first is tourism events and festivals, and obviously, there's a huge range of festivals that happen around the county, some very well-known nationally and some that are more local in nature, but generally, they tend to be around arts, culture, food, activity-based or outdoor festivals. Okay. So, we would fund promotional, usually, or programming parts of those festivals, and there's definitely a high proportion of those every year in the Connemara Municipal District, and then the other part of the Economic Development Support Scheme is economic development initiatives, and that would very much, I suppose, be looking at community groups or business representative organisations that would be carrying out initiatives like upgrading festive lighting to LED or other initiatives such as farmers' markets, community shops, shop local campaigns. So, all of these initiatives that bring additional football into towns and villages all across the year. So, the maximum grant in that is €3,000, and again, definitely, I suppose, a lot of those would be the festivals and other initiatives that would be carried out then as well by the groups. Okay. So, that's the economic development one, as you say, anything that sort of attracts football or increases economic activity within the local area would come broadly under that particular scheme. All right. And the second one then is the Community Development Support Scheme, and how does that differ from the Economic Development Support Scheme, Mary? I suppose that's my own area, and it's very much about improving our outdoor amenities and green spaces, and I suppose where in my other hat, as you mentioned there, I'm the age-friendly programme manager, and accessibility of all of these spaces is obviously hugely important so that nobody's left behind in enjoying our community walkways or community gardens or parks. And another area that we would fund in that is community playgrounds, again, which obviously have a recurring maintenance issue and resurfacing, all of those sorts of works. And the other area in that are our tidy towns groups. We're very fortunate to have over 40 groups that enter the national competition every year, and I suppose it's very obvious all the wonderful work that they're doing in terms of litter picking, biodiversity planting, visual improvements to the streetscape, approach roads, everything like that, and it would be funding those projects again. They come up with all different initiatives every year and the equipment for their volunteers, everything like that. Okay. So the schemes seem to cover a wide range of supports and areas that are eligible to apply for the funding, which is great. They do. They do. And I suppose that's why we've split them into three separate schemes, so they're within the one umbrella, but they are very distinct areas. And again, of course, one of the other initiatives there is that people, groups can apply to each support scheme. So it's recognising that you might have the same community development group that might want to input something into economic development, as well as small improvements to their amenities under community development. And the last one there, the cultural development support scheme, who can apply and how much will be funded under that particular scheme, Mary? Sure. So again, there are three very defined areas in the cultural development support scheme. The first are Arts Act grants, and they're very much to fund community arts activities and projects. So small community activities that are involving people in all aspects of the art, whether that be drama, film, music, visual arts, community arts projects. And then there's a maximum grant on that one of 2,500. Then heritage grants have a maximum grant of 1,500. And again, they are all sorts of heritage activities, projects, so very much like heritage week projects, surveys, workshops, publications, recordings, training, and even say the development of biodiversity action plans, which can also be very useful for groups such as tidy towns. And the final area in that is Irish language promotional activities. And that has a maximum grant of 1,000 euro. And obviously, that is about promoting the use of Irish language in events and projects all across the county. So it could be events for shopping in the Gilda, it could be workshops or classes for people, and just events in the community that would be held at Gilda. So it's all about promoting it as part of normal everyday activity all across the county. Now, is there a requirement to have match funding for any of these? There is indeed. Now, we've reduced that over the years. So under the economic development support scheme, it would be 20% of the overall cost of the grant. And then under community development, it would be 20%. And there is no match funding requirement on the smaller scale grants under the cultural development support scheme. Oh, they have none. Okay. Now, as you as you touched on briefly there, we might go back to it again. Like a lot of community groups or community development groups that are in rural areas might have a need for applying under different ones at the same time. And they're allowed to do that, are they Mary? They are indeed, because I suppose, as I said, they're very distinct schemes from each other. So for instance, like if a group doesn't have a plan in terms of planting, then obviously we have to follow the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and all of that. So they might look to do a biodiversity action plan under heritage and carry out some improvements to local amenity or playground under community grants. So I suppose that's why we have them split up in such a way and three separate schemes within one overall scheme, recognising that there are a huge range of activities going on with volunteers at local level. So it's recognising that and not putting an impediment, I suppose, in place. It's rather rewarding them and allowing them to apply across the board. Now, and they're currently open. How can people apply? Do you log on to the Galway County Council website and take it from there? Or what's the process, Mary? You can indeed. You can log on to our website and you'll get all the details there. And over the last year, we have moved on to an online application process. So people that would have done that last year would be very familiar with it. But you'll get the link on our website or you can go directly into galwaycoco.submit.com. And there's the application there for each of the three support schemes. And you go and register on the system and then literally to bring you through question to question from there on. And when is the closing date? Is it the same date for all of them? It is indeed. Yeah. And that's the important bit not to miss. So it's the 24th of January at 4 p.m. And it's all online. It is all online. And if anybody is having any difficulties with the online system or anything like that, they can give us a call in the office and we'll get somebody to go through it with them. Is there any kind of compulsory documentation that you might want to raise awareness of that people might want to have be getting ready before they go on? Absolutely. Yep. And that's all set out again in the introductory part of each of the forms. But you're obliged to upload your group bank statement or credit union account and your public liability insurance policy and one quotation for each expenditure item. Okay. And these are compulsory documentation that must be submitted with this? Correct. Yes. Okay. Yes. And the process is there, the facility is there for them to be able to upload them? It is. It's part of the questions. Yeah. So there's a specific question on uploading each of those relevant pieces of documentation. Are there any other requirements that people or groups should be aware of in relation to applying under the schemes? Well, I suppose that the other part of it, and again, we would find that the registration with the Galway County PPN has been increasing every year. But the public participation network is our registration of all community and voluntary groups that are active in the county. And we would encourage all groups to register with them. And it's compulsory also for this funding scheme, which is funded by Galway County Council. So they can register online in literally 10 minutes by going into galwaycountyppn.ie. And do that first? Exactly. Okay. And they'll have the registration number then to take with them there that they can enter into the form. Okay. They'll need that as part of the whole process. Now, once the applications are submitted and the closing date has arrived, 24th of January at 4pm and the shut off has taken place, how long will it take for the schemes to be assessed, the applications to be assessed before people and groups start to hear back on the outcome of their application? Roughly? Yeah, sure. Well, we try to have a very quick turnaround. We've actually brought it forward a little bit this year. So we bring the recommendations to the February plenary meeting, which will be held at the end of February. And we'll be notifying all of the successful and unsuccessful applicants after that. So generally, we have over 300 applications. So we would have all those assessed and recommendations going into the plenary meeting for February. So they should hear about it then shortly thereafter? Absolutely. And these schemes come around every year, don't they, Mary? They do indeed, yeah. So they're advertised at the end of every year. And yeah, with the view to getting them approved as early as possible in the year, so that you're giving every group again until the end of October to carry out their projects. Okay, brilliant. Anything else you'd like to let listeners know about in relation to the scheme, Mary, or the online process before we let you go? Well, I suppose we always are here to help and to advise if you're unsure of what category it might fit into. And obviously, the Local Community Development Committee's funding scheme, which is the Local Enhancement Programme, is going to also be opening up later this week, actually. So that will also be open. So if anybody wants to just ring us and query which scheme is the most appropriate for any of their funding proposals, we're always just at the end of a phone or an email. So they can get on to us at 091 509521 or emailing communitygrants at GalwayCOCO.ie. Brilliant. Thanks so much, Mary, for coming on the programme this evening and giving us all that detailed information. It was very well delivered. Thank you very much and very clear to understand because there's a lot to cover under the three different elements of the scheme. As you say, it's one umbrella, but it encompasses an awful lot of different sections and different areas that the funding is available under. So thank you so much for taking the time out for coming on Community Matters and we'll hope to chat to you again soon. Thanks, Maureen. My pleasure. So that was Mary McGann, who is with Galway County Council there, giving us that information on the Community Support Scheme for 2025. The closing date again is the 24th of January 2025 at 4pm and it's all online. For anyone listening who wants to get their applications in, now is the time. Now, speaking of time, we're almost out of time again. We're just coming up to 8 o'clock. So I would like to thank, a big thank you to all of my special guests this evening, who were Anne-Marie Costello, the Acting Staff Officer with the Local Enterprise Office in Galway, who spoke to us about their series of upcoming short courses and workshops running through February and March. Then I was speaking with Damien Pilot, the CEO with the organisation TROR, on the supports that are provided there by TROR for young parents and their Teen Parent Programme and the Young Parent Programme support services that are expanding currently in Galway and throughout the country. Then I spoke with Richard DeStackpool, the Events Chairperson with the Roundstone Development Community Council, who gave us an update on last year's Roundstone 200 events and what has come out of that. And also to give us an update on their current Community Home Refurbishment Project, which is a big project that they're working on very hard in Roundstone at the moment and which hopes to be completed in the next two to three years. And then I spoke with Mary McGann, the Age-Friendly Programme Manager with Oversight and Involvement also in the Community Support Scheme from Galway County Council, who spoke to us there in great depth about the Community Support Schemes for 2025 that are open for applications with Galway County Council at the moment. But though I'm finished the programme for this evening, I don't forget that coming up at eight o'clock, we will have the Casual News with Bernard Lee, and that will be followed at 8.20 approximately with the usual Citizen Information slot. And this evening, Colin Wolfe himself will be in the house and behind the studio desk at 8.30 with his programme to bring us to close the business at nine o'clock this evening. My thanks also to Brij Omaly, the producer of the programme, to Tommy Rowe for his brilliant technical management of all things studio-related this evening and equipment. Thank you, Tommy. And thanks to the team here at Connemara Community Radio. But most of all, thank you for listening. And until we meet again very shortly, have a lovely evening and enjoy the rest of your week. From me, Maureen Corbett, good night.