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Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, today (Saturday, 21 January) officially opened a new state-the-art Marina project in County Cavan.
The facility in Virginia will provide 52 berths for boats and act as a major boost to the North East region in terms of tourism.
The Ramor Water Sports Club Marina project includes the provision of an Access for All boat to cater for people with disabilities.
The boat, ‘Lady Amanda’, was named after Amanda Brady - a former member of Ramor Sports Club who has sadly passed.
The project, which received €200,000 under the LEADER programme, will attract increased visitor numbers to the area and make the facility as accessible as possible to the local community.
The Minister was accompanied today by Irish Paralympian, Kerrie Leonard, Irish Sailing CEO, John Twomey, representatives from the Irish Wheelchair Association and members of Ramor Water Sports Club.
Officially opening this extension today, Minister Humphreys said:
“This facility in Virginia will make such a huge difference to the North East region. It will bring in extra tourists and visitors alike and provide a welcome boost to the local economy. I’m really pleased too that the facilities at Ramor Sports Club cater for people all abilities. As part of this project, a ramp will be provided to assist people who use a wheelchair. And the club also operates an access for all boat, ‘Lady Amanda’, which has already brought hundreds of people out onto the water. This really is a project that will make such a difference to this region for generations to come. I want to pay tribute to all the team at Ramor Water Sports Club and I’m delighted my department was able to support them with an investment of €200,000 under LEADER.”
LEADER, a key intervention of Our Rural Future, is a rural development programme co-funded by the EU, which operates a locally-led, bottom-up, approach to meeting the needs of rural communities and businesses. The programme supports private enterprises and community groups in rural areas.
The programme is based on a community-led approach to rural development and plays an important role in supporting communities and enterprises in progressing job creation, social inclusion and environmental projects at local level.
Funding is currently delivered by 29 Local Action Groups (LAGs) in 28 sub-regional areas. These groups are partnerships of public and private entities from a defined geographical area. LAGs are responsible for local projects in accordance with the Local Development Strategies they develop themselves.
€250 million has been made available for LEADER for the period 2021 to 2027. This is comprised of €70 million for the transitional period 2021 to 2022, which came into effect on 1 April 2021 and an additional €180 million from 2023 to 2027.
Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for rural Ireland for the period 2021-2025. It represents a new milestone in the approach to rural development policy for Ireland and adopts a more strategic, ambitious and holistic approach to investing in and maximising opportunities for rural areas.