Noonan to launch Limerick cooperative

The Finance Minister Michael Noonan will be in Limerick today, launching Ireland's first multi-stakeholder co-op.

The Limerick initiative is being styled on an internationally successful cooperative corporation in Spain called the Mondragon Corporation, which has sustained tens of thousands of jobs in spite of the ongoing recession.

The new cooperative will feature a combination of producer, consumer, worker and community co-ops in Limerick's biomass, electricity and intensive commercial horticulture secture.

Co-founder of Meithel mid-west Bill Kelly said the Spanish cooperative Mondragon had 80,000 owner-workers and boasted its own bank, insurance company, retail outlets and manufacuring facilities.

"We are promoting the worker-cooperative model," he said. "We have combined with other organisations north and south, and we've set up the workers' cooperative network. Our objective is to promote the model and lobby for supportive legistaltion."