For more than 35 years, Ireland’s Local Development Companies have built the trusted relationships that help policy reach people’s everyday lives. EU and National policies and priorities are realised in rural and urban communities through frontline delivery using local knowledge, practical delivery and long-standing partnership.
As Ireland holds the EU Presidency, this conference will spotlight Ireland’s local development model as a proven way to strengthen cohesion, support community-led decision-making and deliver practical impact on the ground.
At the heart of this model is partnership: Local Development Companies work with communities, agencies, businesses and public bodies to respond to local need. In practice, that means offering employment guidance, providing skills training, supporting access to grants for communities and local enterprise, investing in local amenities, and enabling action to protect the environment.
Structured around pillars of sustainable development, economic, social and environmental, the conference will show how local development supports people and places across the full range of community life. It will highlight the role of Local Development Companies in tackling poverty and exclusion, supporting employment and enterprise, enabling climate action, strengthening participation and building more resilient communities.
This is a moment to recognise local development not as an add-on to policy, but as a proven partnership model for making policy work – locally, practically and with lasting impact.