Meeting to review rural development

A CONFERENCE for LEADER companies, which will be held in Furbo, Co Galway, on Thursday and Friday, will review a decade of rural development and examine what lessons need to be taken forward as the EU embarks on a major new rural programme.

Irish LEADER Support Unit has now gathered some of the architects of the Cork Declaration of 1996 for the conference.

One of the keynote speakers will be the rural expert and campaigner, Lord Plum of Coleshill.

Others are Minister Eamon O’Cuiv and Elena Saraceno, a member of the EU group that drafted the Cork Declaration.