OFFICIAL OPENING:HUGE CROWDS turned out at the National Ploughing Championships in Athy to taste the rewards of what President Mary McAleese termed "the huge patchwork quilt of effort" that goes into staging the event.
Officially opening the championships, the President said it had been a tough summer for the farming community and many of those attending the championships were carrying burdens of worry and unease.
However, she said, they were also carrying a wonderful spirit of resilience and transcendence in facing life and a spirit of “can do, will do” that would help carry people through difficult times.
“When the championships were born back in 1931, Ireland was at that time too facing great challenges in an unstable world. We got through them, not to a perfect world but to an improving world that sometimes went two steps forward and one step back,” she said.
Much more rarely, she said, there was one step forward and two steps back.
“Each of you has played a part in ensuring that Irish agriculture, the jewel in our industrial crown and the heartland of our communities, is bang up to date and as strong as you can make it,” she said.
During her speech, a man wearing an anti-Lisbon T-shirt attempted to heckle the President.
“What about our country? What about our Constitution,” he shouted, before disappearing into the crowd as gardaí moved in. The President appeared not to have heard the heckler.
Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív and Minister of State John Curran used the event to confirm funding would be made available to support the creation of a single representative organisation for all rural and local development companies, first proposed in late 2008.
A statement said it was envisaged the new organisation would supersede Comhar Leader na h-Éireann (Clé), Planet and the Community Partnership Network.
Both Ministers stated that additional time had been given to allow for the submission of final proposals by the three organisations but there was now a need to ensure the new organisation was in place by November. Any further delay would jeopardise funding.
Prior to January 1st, 2009, there were almost 100 local development companies delivering local or rural development programmes and schemes on behalf of the department.
On foot of a cohesion process completed then, these companies were replaced by 53 companies, most of whom now deliver local and rural development programmes on an integrated basis.
Clé represented the rural development or Leader companies, while Planet and the Community Partnership Network represented the others. Funding for the three organisations was provided directly or indirectly by the department, said an explanatory note with the statement.
“With the completion of the cohesion process, and in view of the fact that the majority of the new companies now deliver services on an integrated basis, it is agreed that one single representative organisation for the new companies is all that is required.”