The Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities is the latest politician to come to Dingle! It follows Eamon Ryan’s visit here at the end of June to see some of our projects in the field. Joe O’Brien TD had a much shorter visit than his party leader but spent his time here In Dingle Hub, learning about the variety of projects we are involved in.

He heard how we have expanded from our original purpose of providing office and desk facilities for remote workers to much more; with our mission now being to build a creative, liveable, sustainable low carbon community and generate well-paid, year-round incomes on Dingle Peninsula. This is an innovative model of rural development not being done in many other places. What we have developed here with our partners could be mirrored in hundreds of rural areas with their hubs expanding from office space provision to also taking on sustainability and climate change projects like we have.

We also spent time talking to Minister O’Brien about the next steps for our sustainable mobility (transport) projects, such as a Community Car, for people who only need occasional access to one. Looking forward to hearing how his Department of Rural and Community Development can help out with this and similar initiatives.