Ministerial visit takes in Ballindangan and Mitchelstown
A glimpse of the future of Mitchelstown Library was shown on Friday afternoon last, as Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys rounded off her trip to North Cork with a visit to the soon-to-be co-working space over the library. With sunlight streaming in the windows and a fine view over Lower Cork Street, it will be intriguing to see what the finished space, which is sizeable, will look like once it is kitted out.
The minister preceded this visit locally with a stop at Barnane in Fermoy, before launching the new Broadband Connection Point in Ballindangan Hall. The quiet village was treated to a bit of a buzz as Gardaí manned the road outside the hall, where local politicians and Ballindangan community and committee members spoke with Ms Humphreys.
While Minister Humphreys was in Ballindangan specifically to launch the Broadband Connection Point in the hall, one of 25 in Cork, she did get a grilling locally about the slow rollout of the national broadband plan with one man stating that rural Ireland was being left behind while attention was focused on larger settlements. Ms Humphreys accepted the point, but countered that the government was “doing as much as we can as quickly as we can”, and compared the national project to the electrification of Ireland.
The minister was visiting North Cork last Friday to officially open a number of projects which have received funding from her department, and all had received investment under the rural development policy, Our Rural Future.
A quick stop for tea and chocolate in Ballindangan Hall was enjoyed, before the minister was whisked to her final stop of the day at Mitchelstown Library to see the co-working space that is to be kitted out with an investment of €500,000 from the Our Rural Future fund. Ms Humphreys will have been treated to the sight of the half-collapsed shell of the 49 Upper Cork Street premises as she drove down to the library, but warmly thanked her hosts for the welcome extended to her during her entire visit, saying that she had had ‘a really wonderful day’.
Ms Humphreys singled out two in attendance, Sean Finn of Mitchelstown Community Council and Liam O’Doherty of the Mitchelstown Forum, as she acknowledged that the bulk of the work done locally is done through volunteerism. Mayor of County Cork, Gillian Coughlan praised the plans for the vacant space over the library, saying that community needs young entrepreneurship to keep a place vibrant. Minister Humphreys echoed the mayor’s statements, saying that remote working was ‘the way of the future’.