Declan Rice, Kilkenny Leader Partnership. 2nd National Jobs Conference Presentation. How Local Comunities Create Local Jobs. Green Economy Sector. In Association with Dunhill Rural Enterprises; Waterford County Council; INTERREG ACTION Project; Waterford LEADER Partnership.

1. Job Creation in the Renewable Energy Sector Declan Rice, CEO of Kilkenny LEADER Partnership

2. Remember! Entrepreneurs create jobs- not agencies/ government Agencies/ government can shape the environment whereby entrepreneurs then do the creating! Shape how?- Socially, culturally and economically Some sectors offer more job potential than others.

3. RE Community Enterprise Callan Renewable Energy Supply Co Ltd (CRESCo) Wholly-owned subsidiary of Camphill Communities of Ireland Camphill care for children and vulnerable people in a 18 separate communities. 8 of them in the Kilkenny/ Tipperary region. Their heating needs- the motivation for CRESCo BUT NOT THE END!

4. CRESCo’s Vision To establish a number of centralised heating systems in Callan using wood fuel. To provide local employment from the process To provide additional income to smaller growers. To maximise the benefit to the local area: ‘Keeping it in the local loop’ To expand to cover all county Kilkenny and near region.

5. Callan’s Biomass project clusters Westcourt Ind Est Camphill Kyle – 12 houses; 3 miles Camphill Ballytobin- 80 residents; 3 miles Camphill Jerpoint 12 miles

6. Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (KLP) KLP is a non-profit company with a brief for integrated local development. Covering two main sectors- Rural Development & Social Inclusion. Formed in 2008 as a result of the ‘Cohesion Process’ initiated by the Department of CRAGA. Foundation companies – BNS LEADER; KCAN and CDCD

7. Mission & Vision Tactically- To deliver the rural development and social inclusion programmes that will assist it to service the local development needs of County Kilkenny. Strategically- To assist in building the capacity of county’s communities (of locality & interest) to plan for their future. “Connected Strategies for Sustainable Communities”

8. Programmes 2 main core programmes Rural Development Programme (‘LEADER’) Local Community & Development Programme (LCDP) Subsidiary Programmes supporting ‘core’ Rural Social Scheme Traveller Primary Healthcare Programme Rural Recreation Officer ‘Housing Aid’ – Community Services Programme ‘Warmer Homes’ Programme TÚS – community job placement Kilkenny Women’s Education Project

9. Social Inclusion Programme New ‘Local Community & Development Programme’ started 2010 (LCDP). The LCDP is the main social inclusion programme, it is much more focused and target driven than its predecessors. 1. Promote awareness, knowledge and uptake of a wide range of statutory, voluntary and community services. 2. Increase access to formal and informal training & educational, recreational and cultural activities and resources. 3. Increase people’s work readiness and employment prospects. 4. Promote active engagement with policy, practice and decision making processes on matters affecting local communities. Employment Readiness and Training Information prioritised. Use of more robust measurement of progress towards employability.

10. What is LEADER? The title LEADER is an acronym of the French phrase Liaison EtreAction pour Development de l’EconomieRurale Translating as “Working together to improve the rural economy” LEADER started as a small EU pilot ‘rural development’ programme in 1991. It’s success over 3 successive programmes led to its ‘mainstreaming’ as part of the current Rural Development Programme (RDP) of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) for the 2007 – 2013 period. There are 35 companies operating LEADER across all rural areas of the state. LEADER now comprise axis 3 & 4 of the RDP – €425 million or 10% of the total budget. Kilkenny LEADER Partnership has €11.5 million

11. LEADER’s Principles LEADER is now a ‘methodology’ or approach to local development with 7 specific principles: 1. Area-based local development strategies 2. Bottom-up approach 3. Public–private partnerships: 4. The local action groups (LAGs) 5. Facilitating innovation 6. Integrated and multi-sectoral actions 7. Networking 8. Cooperation

12. KLP Priority for 2007- 2013 Renewable Energies Food Tourism Community Development

13. Kilkenny Food Strategy Establish ‘Artisan Food School’ in the county. Seeking to establish in a rural Kilkenny town a centre for 5-6 food retailers with some production capacity: Kilkenny Food Showcase. Appropriate building and food units will act as the hub of a type of ‘Kildare Village’ for food Use the Food Showcase as the anchor to develop the town and county as a ‘food destination’. Units should be able to build local trade who value their quality and staples and attract visitors on a weekly or monthly basis to supplement their income. Food Showcase - Beginning -not the End of Food Strategy

14. Tourism Strategy Trail Kilkenny Trails + walks, cycle ways, canoe, ‘themed’ craft, food garden, etc. Increase use of trails as pathway to rural Kilkenny Embed rural enterprises such in crafts and ‘food’ into trail network. Development of River-based Tourism Mostly soft-adventure and leisure activities A balance and a complement to the Kilkenny City and Waterford

15. KLP’s Interest in RE RE is seen as a tool of rural development – not the other way around! However there are huge synergetic opportunities of mutual benefit KLP has identified two particular sub-sectors: Biomass, including wood fuel, biogas (AD), biofuels, etc. Micro-Hydropower where opportunities arise

17. Founding secretariat of MeithealnaGaoithe – the Irish Wind Farmers Co-operative

18. Support of biogas plants – Ballytobin

19. Initiating and supporting biofuel projects – Kilkenny Cereals

20. Funding research and development of short rotation coppicing – ‘willows for heat/ energy’

21. Funding audit/ report on micro-hydro power in Kilkenny.

22. Funding several biomass (wood heating) projects, Threecastles, Kilsheelan, Kyle, Jerpoint, Callan, etc

24. Partnership with community groups, Coillte, Teagasc and Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency.

25. Trying to encourage as much of the income from the sector to remain in the local economic loop.

26. Producer group established – 80 private growers from Kilkenny region.

27. Expansion of the consumer base – hotels, nursing homes, swimming pools.

28. KLP now propose to recruit a development executive to drive this work and integrate the production and consumer end of the value chain.NEXUS “The term value chain refers to relationships established between actors involved directly and indirectly in a productive activity with the aim of adding value in each stage of the value chain.” Biotrade© www.biotrade.org

29. Nexus Project Progress KLP and CRESCo working with Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency, Teagasc and CANDIDA to develop the value chain. SEAI assisted in the early days of the project. Training days, seminars, etc. gathered 80 wood fuel growers into the process. Next element was the recruitment of more consumers. KLP committed funding to retain consultant to develop the consumption end of the value chain. Always a regional approach rather than a county strategy – 20 mile radius of Callan extends into Tipperary, Waterford, etc. Slow, but steady work – until an opportunity dropped into our laps to ramp it up significantly! Partnership with Danone Baby Nutrition on the creation of a supply chain on a regional basis.

30. Partnership with DANONE Baby Nutrition Multi-nation food producers Danoneapproached KLP & CRESCo regarding supply chain supplying 27,000 tonnes of woodchip p/a to a wood burning boiler planed for the NutriciaPlant in Wexford Town. Danone need a non-governmental organisation with experience to make an application to the Danone Eco-fund trust of €100 million to unlock funding for the development of the supply chain. KLP has the level of experience and the NGO legal structure. KLP prepared to be a partner once the value chain extends beyond Danone’s needs and is a truly community-led initiative. Danone more than happy with this so an application will be made shortly. The application will initially be a feasibility study with a follow-up expected. It’s structure will consist of the following elements: 1. Measuring privately owned forestry stock in the region 2. Market & Consumption 3. Development of overall framework

31. Proposal - Community Carbon Trading Meetings with on partnership with Cosain – Irish Carbon Trading Platform, Development of ‘community carbon credit system’ (CCCS) Carbon savings from adoption of ‘green economies’ accredited and registered on Cosain Sale of credits on Cosain to commercial interests. Funding from credits could be reinvested into rural community projects.

32. So where now Development of the regional value chain. Ensure that growers, employees and all parts of value chain benefit from its existence. Develop a community carbon trading model to capture benefits of work for reinvestment in the community. Hope it becomes so commonplace that communities take it for granted! Thank you!