Roadmap launched to turn Laois and Midlands into 'zero-carbon economy'

The new Midlands Regional Enterprise Plan (REP) aims to transition the Laois and other counties into a zero-carbon economy.

The new roadmap, which was launched by Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy TD, at the Irish Manufacturing Research, (IMR) Mullingar.

It includes projects and initiatives across the four Midlands counties (Offaly, Laois, Longford, Westmeath). Stakeholder consultation sessions attracted attendees from across industry, public sector and higher education sectors from within the region. 

The three strategic objectives for the Midlands region to 2024 are: 

• Climate Action - Transition to a zero-carbon economy; 
• Capitalising on strengths of the Midlands through smart specialisation and digitalisation; 
• Positioning the Midlands as the destination of choice to live, work, visit, invest and learn.

The transition to a zero-carbon economy aims to support the activities of the Midlands Regional Transition Team to develop transformative projects to guide emerging low-carbon focused projects across the region.

Capitalising on strengths of the Midlands through Smart Specialisation and Digitalisation includes actions to capitalise and realise business, industry, and skills opportunities presented by TU status; leverage The Midlands Advanced Manufacturing Action Plan to position the region as an advanced manufacturing centre of excellence and develop a Smart Connected Technologies Cluster.

Positioning the Midlands as the destination of choice to live, work, visit, invest and learn includes actions to promote and position the region as a community of choice; to support and develop additional flexible office solutions throughout the region, including the exploration of and the development of vacant properties; to progress and support tourism development, visitor experience development plans and the experience economy across the region and finally to establish a Regional Food and Drink Cluster in the Midlands.

Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy TD, outlined the importance of the Plan, saying: “I am delighted to launch the Midlands Regional Enterprise Plan to 2024 in Mullingar.

"This Plan represents the coming together of public and private sectors across Laois, Longford, Offaly, and Westmeath to address the challenges unique to our region, and identify and put in place measures to seize the opportunities for the Midlands now and going forward.

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“I want to congratulate Anne Cusack, Chair of the Midlands Steering Committee, Sarah Morgan, Midlands Programme Manager, and all the Steering Committee members for their work to develop this new plan for the region. I have had the pleasure of working with Anne and the Committee over the past year on this and am delighted to see the final product.

“I have been determined to ensure that funding will be available to underpin the ambitions of the Regional Enterprise Plans and I am very pleased that we have secured up to €180 million in funding over the coming years. This is necessary for the development of collaborative regional projects of scale that will drive delivery of the objectives developed in this Midlands Plan, and I encourage all to look at how best this funding can be used to support regional job creation and enterprise development into the future.”