COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENTERPRISE AND TOURISM SPC

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

HEADED ITEM NO.

HEADED ITEM: T. Shanahan

Local Economic & Community Plan - Advisory Steering Group nominations

REPLY:

 

Introduction/ Context

The Local Government Reform Act, (2014) requires each Local Authority in Ireland to develop a 6 year Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP). This is a major body of work which is required to be formulated and adopted by December 2015.

The plan will identify and implement actions to strengthen and develop the economic and community dimensions of the Local Authority area over the six year period.

The bodies jointly tasked with developing and implementing the LECP are the South Dublin Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) and the Economic Development, Enterprise and Tourism Strategic Policy Committee (SPC).

The LECP will be prepared in accordance with the Draft Guidelines on the Local and Economic Community Plans, issued by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on the 20th of November 2014. These are circulated as part of this agenda item.

Adoption Process

While the making of the overall plan is a reserved function for the elected Council, the Economic Development, Enterprise and Tourism Strategic Policy Committee is tasked with overseeing the drafting of the economic element of the SPC.

However, an essential component of co-ordinating the formulation and adoption of the Local Economic and Community plan is the LECP Advisory Steering Committee.

The Draft Guidelines set out the composition and role of this committee:

In order to ensure that the preparation of the economic and community elements of the Plan can be co-ordinated and duplication (both in terms of effort and engagement with stakeholders) is avoided, each local authority should establish an Advisory Steering Group to assist in the preparation, drafting, adoption and making, publication, monitoring of the economic and community elements of the Plan.

 

The Advisory Steering Group should comprise of -

 

(a)        at least one member of the LCDC,

(b)        at least one member of the SPC for Economic Development and Enterprise

(c)        the chief officer of the LCDC, or his or her nominee,

(d)        the Director of Service, supporting the SPC for Economic Development and Enterprise, or his or her nominee, and

(e)        any person or persons both the SPC for Economic Development and Enterprise and LCDC consider to be suitable whether or not such person is a member of the LCDC or the SPC. This may include senior personnel from relevant public and private sector organisations, individuals with entrepreneurial expertise, third level institutions, members of the relevant regional economic forum (as provided for in paragraph 3.3 of this guidance) and other relevant interests.

Specific functions of the Advisory Steering Group will be to advise and assist on -

                                i.            the development of the socio-economic statement setting out the high level goals for the area,

                              ii.            the development and management of the consultation process for the development of the economic element and the community element of the Plan based on the high level goals in the socio-economic statement referred to at paragraph 14,

                            iii.            the particular areas of activity to be covered respectively by the economic elements of the Plan and the community elements of the Plan, as well as areas of complementary and co-ordinated activity, taking account of the need to reduce duplication and unnecessary overlap and to maximise the use of available resources,

                             iv.            the integration of both the economic and community elements into a single, coherent LECP,

                               v.            ensure that, for each action, there is clarity as to where responsibility rests for leading/coordinating,

                             vi.            ensuring the Plan is consistent with the relevant statutory City/County Development Plan, and

                           vii.            ensuring the Plan is consistent with any Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy or, as appropriate, Regional Planning Guidelines, any National Planning Framework or other national policy, that may apply.

In light of the considerable workload which will arise and the requirement for close co-operation between the Economic Development SPC and the LCDC two members from the Economic Development SPC are required to be nominated to sit on the Advisory committee.

Initial Stage

The first stage of this process is the development if a socio-economic profile for the County based on best available data. The socio-economic profile will be used as an evidence base for developing policy through the LECP.

From the economic development perspective there are five main Sustainable Economic Development objectives set out in the draft guidelines to be considered for economic policy formulation ~:

It is considered that these areas are appropriate to South Dublin County Council and allow for the creation of a focused framework for the formulation of economic development policy that complements the community elements of the envisaged LECP.

Immediate Steps