If Kilkenny is going to flourish into the future, we need to prepare and plan carefully. The Green Parties “Green New Deal “will be providing new jobs for the region in the renewable energy sector as well as in agriculture, tourism and through the home insulation scheme. We need to support our many small businesses which are the back bone of employment in Kilkenny, and work to secure new businesses into the area.
The County Council will have a major role in this; it needs to identify sectors of industry that we need to promote and the sectors that will decline. The Council needs to relook at sections of the County Development Plan, and The Strategy for Economic, Social and Cultural Development, which were written on the bases of previous economic and population growth, it needs bring the plan up to date for the present circumstances, the county development board needs to be strengthened, or consider a new county development forum to bring together the Transport, Education, Business sectors with the Enterprise Board, Councillors, Local Authority, and Enterprise Ireland. This group, would meet regularly and concentrate solely on a strategy to identify the infrastructure, education and other needs of Kilkenny, to provide jobs though creating and attracting business’s and industry to the region.
