A STRATEGY for rural development in north Mayo and west Sligo has been adopted as a model for Slovenia, according to the manager of Moy Valley Resources, Mr Billy Lewis.
The company co ordinates the efforts of State agencies with those of eight local communities in Ballina, Bonniconlon, Ballycastle, Crossmolina, Easkey, Enniscrone, Foxford and Killala.
Since 1991, it has helped 250 small businesses get off the ground, with the help of investment of £400,000 from the local communities. These new businesses now employ about 490 people.
Projects include a surfing centre at Easkey, a genealogy centre in Crossmolina, an enterprise centre in Enniscrone and a visitor centre at Foxford Woollen Mills.
The latest plans include a £2 million investment in a seed potato project, with prospective customers in England, Scotland and Germany. The possibility of growing daffodils, garlic and artichokes for export is also being investigated, as are ways of adding value to seafood products.
The company has also helped set up a local development company in the Meza Valley in Slovenia. Projects there included the restoration of a derelict ski slope, a training programme for tourist guides and a job creation scheme for small businesses.
The Meza Valley company is being used as a model for 42 other local development companies throughout Slovenia. In an initial phase, 19 Slovenian managers will be given work experience in north Mayo, before returning to apply the experience gained at home.
It is all a far cry from the doom and gloom which often accompanies the debate about rural development in the west, but national planners have been slow to take on board the lessons from north Mayo, according to Mr Lewis.
The problems of north Mayo are different from the problems of north Louth. Therefore locals have to be given the empowerment to develop the resource base, to capitalise on the potential for economic and social development," he says.
He adds, with just a tinge of impatience, that the problems of the west have been analysed again and again in recent years but substantial action to correct regional imbalances has not followed.
"We've had the Western Bishops' Initiative, the Western Partnership Board and we now have the Western Commission. What resources have they been given?
"Yet if we look at the east of Ireland it has got an Interreg programme, because of its disadvantage in trading with Wales. In the west, of Ireland we re tired of analysis, we're tired of reports. We need resources that bring us on to an equal plane, where we can play a full part in economic activity in Ireland and in Europe as a whole.
We have viable opportunities that are there. We have viable and, vibrant communities that want to do it. Are we going to empower them as they want, or the way somebody in Dublin thinks they should develop?"
According to Mr Lewis, the success of the Moy Valley initiative is all the more remarkable given the valley's particular circumstances. Of the 10,000 smallholders in the predominantly rural area only 3,000 are full time farmers. Unemployment stands at 32 per cent.
He says the key to that success is the people who have looked beyond the traditional remedy of emigration and decided to make a go of things at home.
"Eighty five per cent of my team are under 25 years of age. Most of them are graduates from the area, working in the area for the benefit of it not working in New York and sending, the money home with a postcard.
He mentions as an example the village of Easkey, where a factory empty for 15 years is now home to a small unit where corkscrews are made.
"When people come to an area to invest, they are affected by the human resource that is there - the confidence of the people, their ability to adapt and to change, and to work.