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Case Study: Lauragh SEC

Organisation type: Charity

Web address:

Contact: lauraghcomco@gmail.com or janet@hawker.ie

Community size: 250

Sustainability focus:

  • Renewable energy generation

  • Financial and energy savings

  • Energy efficiency

  • Sustainable employment

  • Sustainable economy

  • Behavioural change

  • Energy education

Funding and Financing sources:

  • Clann Credo, SEAI

Current priorities:

  • Climate Change

  • Energy generation

  • Energy Efficiency

  • Transport

  • Waste

  • Water

  • Local Food

  • Lighting

  • Social Enterprise

  • Building Retrofit

Stated aim of community:

Our objective is to regenerate our community by increasing the potential to make a living here. The way we propose to do this is by creating a community energy scheme. The revenue from this is to be used to fund services which the community sees as important. We are also interested in improving the energy efficiency of homes and researching local energy resources. The aim of our work is to help make Lauragh an economically viable place to live by reducing costs, providing services and creating employment.

Lauragh Community Council was formed to give a voice to the community and to plan and seek funding for local projects.

The idea of the formation of a community council is to give a voice to people living in the area, a space where they can come together and plan projects to improve the area for everyone (under headings like employment, tourism, public amenities and facilities, services, infrastructure and more). The group will plan and seek funding for local projects, and work to benefit everyone.

Additional Information:

Lauragh is similar to many other communities located on peninsulas and face similar difficulties including low population exasperated by outward migration, weak employment opportunities and isolation. Attempts to encourage families to move to the area have not been successful. There are many holiday homes which are unoccupied for much of the year but are not available for long term rent or for sale and local employment opportunities are absent. These conditions have led to concerns at to the future of the local school which currently employs two teachers, the closure of which will have further consequences to the population and local employment. There is concern that housing and community buildings are under-utilised and that local demographics are not representative of the national population (mainly retired people as a result of younger residents moving away for work). The area is adequately covered by broadband through a local provider. However, concerns have been raised about the future of this supplier if high speed broadband is extended to some parts of the area. There are fears that loss of customers will cause the business to close with a loss of jobs and service to remaining customers that are too isolated to be connected to the National Broadband Scheme.

Locally organised by the community council in 2016/17 to brainstorm for ideas to develop activities for the elderly, safe walking routes to entice tourists to the area, create jobs locally and keep the local school operating at its current capacity, the Energy Sub-group was formed.

A few issues were encountered at the start, these included time commitments as most of the people who volunteered also had full time jobs and other obligations. Many depended on seasonal tourism for their income so had to defer their involvement to wintertime. The project took off in the summer of 2018 after a poster and leaflet campaign to inform the community of the SEAI “Warmer Home Scheme” (WHS) and a meeting that was being organised to provide further information and an opportunity to meet experts. The  meeting demonstrated options that could be developed in the community. Local businesses gave talks on micro hydro energy, solar energy and the WHS.

The energy sub-group currently has three active members, and since becoming involved have learnt much about the obstacles that can derail community sustainability projects, but also how to overcome these.

Grant schemes and funding:

  • Application for SEAI funding was overwhelming and initially there were questions as to whether the grant system was the right direction for the community to take. However it was found that the forms were not as difficult to complete as first thought.

  • SEAI keep changing the name of grant schemes.

  • The size of the forms is more daunting than the process of filling them out.

  • The financial section was the most difficult especially setting milestones, however milestones were goals and could be altered if necessary.

  • An grant of €10,000 is available for consultancy work on the Energy Master Plan

  • The Community Council had secured funding from Clann Credo and this was vital. Payment for consultancy work carried out had to be paid upfront and reclaimed afterwards.

  • Getting a loan for the first time was time consuming and without it the project could have been stalled or abandoned.

  • This is a small community and cash flow is challenging, interest due on the loan was a cause for concern.

The first stage was the preparation of an Energy Master Plan, however data collection has been slow in some instance. While the need for a baseline is understood the cost is high for work that could potentially be completed by the community. Additional difficulties were realised with the requirement to obtain three tenders and a shortage of suitable consultants.

Moving forward:

There is a feeling that the community can become more involved in data collection thus cutting out the need for a consultant and associated fees.

The aim is to keep savings within the community to fund further projects and to create local employment opportunities.

A number of possibilities have been discussed including the viability of using local resources that are in abundance, these include gorses, kelp and mountain sheep wool, and incorporating this into a social enterprise with local benefits.

Tourism is an important aspect of the local region and the community have expressed interest in developing walking routes to attract visitors and also to provide safe amenities for its residents. As noted previously the community consists of many elderly and retired persons. To combat isolation, a lunch club has been suggested with hope of extending the service to anyone interested in attending as well as organising outings and excursions.

Difficulties include:

The same people are involved in many projects and attend meetings – need to widen the circle to increase engagement outside of the core group. This would give more credibility to the project and more acceptance within the community.

The community cannot use any of the initial €10,000 for posters, leaflets or the cost of organising meeting. This was an out of pocket expense borne by the committee members and was a barrier to getting more people involved. In addition, there is an opinion that this money could have been put to better use, for instance minor retrofit works.

There has, to date been a low uptake of the WHS and this may be due to residents not wanting committee members knowing their financial situation.

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RURAL COMMUNITY TRANSITIONS

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Address

Center for Environmental Research
School of Natural Sciences
University of Limerick 
Ireland

Acknowledgement

This  project is funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020. the EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department Of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. It is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has the statutory function of co-ordination and promoting environmental research.

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