Chairperson’s Address I am honoured to become the eleventh Chairperson of IRD Duhallow, and take the baton from a long line of great leaders that have steered the growth and direction of this organisation over the past three decades. I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Mary Wallace, whose term of office was ended because of a new departmental ruling preventing civil servants from holding such office or becoming directors of Local Development Companies. While her term was short, Mary has left a positive imprint, reinforcing the importance of the community sector that she represented and has served for many years.
The Company’s contribution to the local economy and small businesses remains strong and significant, at over €5.7m directly and when coupled with the almost €2m in salaries paid to our RSS, Tús and CE participants and on top of €376,000 paid out to LEADER projects IRD Duhallow is responsible for injecting over €8million per annum in the Duhallow economy.
The resilience of our communities, people and organisation has been tested, as never before with the Covid 19 challenge. The response of IRD Duhallow, as part of the county wide Covid response teams led by Cork and Kerry County Council, has been remarkable and is widely recognised. IRD Duhallow’s roots are deep in our community. Our values, interrogated by our Board at its annual strategic review, position and guide the company at all levels and are stated as Courageous, Innovative, Responsive, Caring, Driven and Trusted. The stellar response of our Board, management and staff has drawn heavily on and validated again, these core values. We are so proud of all our staff who embody these values and supported communities and individuals at the front line. Shopping was done and delivered; community facilities, although not in use, were well maintained; thousands of meals were prepared and delivered; laundry collected and delivered to individuals across the region; training and supports to the unemployed, people with disabilities, families and rural businesses had to be re-adjusted, reinvented and in many cases delivered on line. We stayed in touch through our friendly phone service and fortnightly magazine Discover Duhallow. In addition, our Furniture Revamp team, supported by community volunteers, made cotton reusable face masks as well as Perspex office screens. The masks were donated to local nursing homes and facilities and are now on sale. I want to pay special tribute to our wonderful staff, for the way they adapted so quickly and efficiently when met with the Covid Challenge. They went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that our community needs were met at all levels and I know their efforts are appreciated. This amazing flexibility and courageous response from our management and staff marked this organisation out and set us apart. I was therefore delighted to welcome the Mayor of Cork, Councillor Ian Doyle on his official visit, where he saw first-hand the response of the organisation. It was an honour to accept on behalf of the Company, the Mayors Recognition for admirable service to the people of County Cork. In addition, our team that made daily and weekly calls to over 700 people and listened carefully to what they told us. In a report to the Board they outlined the issues and terrible impact the Covid restrictions were having on our significant elderly population. As a Company, we responded by bringing their message to the attention of the public and policy makers. We as a society can never again abandon our senior citizens and let them take the brunt of a terrible virus without sufficient levels of care and support. Many felt abandoned, not allowed to visit their life-long partners or parents in hospitals and nursing homes and couldn’t even attend their burials. Not able to visit their churches of receive the sacraments. I want to thank the Irish Examiner, Cork, Kerry and Tipperary Local radio stations as well as national radio for highlighting our issues. The vital role our Social Enterprises played in providing the essential services that enable people live independently shows the way forward for rural and indeed urban communities. I am proud to serve the sector on a voluntary basis and indeed was elected to the Board of IRD Duhallow as a representative of the sector.
As Chairperson, I am satisfied that the appropriate controls exist and are managed effectively to meet the governance requirements of the Charities Regulator. As a company our Board and senior staff sign up to the Ethics in Public Office standards. To this end I want to thank, my fellow Directors and Vice-Chairperson Annette O’Mahony who also chairs our Finance Committee for her support and financial oversight. This year saw the departure of a number of Directors, Anne Fitzgerald, Cllr. John Joe Culloty, Mary Wallace, Brian Kelly and Cllr Gearoid Murphy who resigned on being appointed to Cork North LCDC. Thank you all for your significant contributions to the success of the company. It is my pleasure to welcome on to the Board Sean Wallace of Macra na Feirme, Pat Brosnan form Western Duhallow and James O’Keeffe representing the Blue Dot Farmers. They will no doubt, contribute to the passion and commitment of the Board and to the strategic development of Duhallow. Two former board members went to their eternal reward during the year; Conor O’ Flynn Newmarket and Patricia Crowley Laharn. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha. IRD Duhallow is widely recognised as having a high performance culture. I want to acknowledge and thank our CEO Maura Walsh and her management team and staff for their hard work, dedication and professionalism. I must acknowledge the support we get from Government Departments and Public Bodies and Agencies. The programmes we deliver are funded by the Departments of Rural and Community Development; Employment Affairs and Social Protection; Children and Youth Affairs; Agriculture Food and the Marine; Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Housing and Local Government; Justice and Equality; Education and Skills; as well as the HSE; Cork and Kerry Education and Training Boards; SEAI; Pobal; The Dormant Accounts Funds; Skillnets Ireland, Túsla, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and LAWPRO. We look forward to working with the new Government on social inclusion, unemployment training and upskilling, rural, economic and community development, climate action, water quality and biodiversity. I was heartened to see the commitment in the Programme for Government to independent Local Action Groups and establishing an interim Rural Development programme to bridge the gap until the next LEADER programme. If the covid challenge has taught us anything, it is the vital importance of groups like IRD Duhallow that are on the ground, flexible and responsive. Core funding of our operations has been identified by our Board as a vital support for organisations like ours into the future. IRD Duhallow is well positioned for the years ahead, thanks in no small way to our base in the James O ’Keeffe Institute, which makes available to us the facilities and scope to develop and grow. I want to thank its Board for their ongoing support and cooperation in this respect. The coming year will see us review our strategies and start to build a new strategy for the next seven years, based on our solid foundation of social, cultural, economic and environment development, it will continue to be relevant and responsive to the needs of all communities and rural businesses.
Breeda Moynihan Cronin CHAIRPERSON
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