A ground-breaking new report was launched by the Western Development Commission and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics in the Council Chamber in Roscommon. The report entitled “Smart Atlantic Way – A Roadmap towards a Smart Region”, does exactly what it suggests. It provides a roadmap for a Smart Region along Ireland’s Atlantic Coast. There […]
As discussed in the last blog post on farmers in the Western Region, agriculture is an important sector of Irish economy and particularly important to the rural economy and society. In this post different measures of payments and income are examined using three different sources. Data on CAP beneficiaries is available at county level, showing […]
The WDC recently published the first in a series of ‘Regional Sectoral Profiles’ analysing specific economic sectors in the Western Region and identifying key policy issues. The first sector examined is Wholesale & Retail. Two publications are available: WDC Insights: Wholesale & Retail in the Western Region (2-page summary) Wholesale & Retail in the Western […]
The Western Development Commission with partners has recently been awarded funding from the Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic programme for an initiative to support a solution to reuse and recycle fishing gear from our sea’s called “(Blue Circular Economy BCE)”. The first partner meeting by the BCE consortium aims to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) […]
Analysis of Census of Population 2016 shows that at a Western Region level, the total number of jobs located within the Western Region was 242,712. The Census also reports that the total resident ‘at work’ population within the Western Region is higher, at 260,261 showing that more commute to work outside the Region than travel […]
WDC CEO Tomás Ó Síocháin acknowledges the contribution of Minister Seán Kyne during his tenure in the Department of Rural and Community Development The Western Development Commission has today (Wednesday 17th October 2018) welcomed the appointment of Minister Seán Canney as Minister of State to the Department of Rural and Community Development. The appointment follows […]
Agriculture has traditionally been a very important sector of Irish economy and this, along with the subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), has meant that it is also one of the most measured sectors in the economy. We would therefore expect to have a very good idea how many farmers are in the Western […]
There has been much talk recently of an increase in e-working but does the evidence support the idea that it is more prevalent? Technology development and in particular high speed broadband enables much office based work to be conducted remotely or away from the office. This, coupled with increased journey times to work has led […]
In August the Department of Business, Enterprise & Innovation published the Annual Employment Survey (AES) for 2017. This provides an analysis of employment in Industrial and Services companies under the remit of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta. This type of employment is referred to as ‘agency-assisted’. In 2017, total permanent, full-time employment […]
NEW CEO APPOINTED TO THE WESTERN DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION Tomás Ó Síocháin appointed as CEO as the WDC welcomes renewed focus on Regional Development The Western Development Commission has today (Tuesday 25th September 2018) announced that Tomás Ó Síocháin has been appointed by the Board of the WDC as Chief Executive Officer. Tomás joins the organisation […]
Smart Atlantic Way: roadmap to a smarter future in the West of Ireland launchedNovember 15, 2018 - 11:19 am
Blue Circular Economy – An initiative to support Marine plastics fishing gear recycling with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Aelsund.October 19, 2018 - 10:53 am