SMILEGOV UPDATE

The island of Arranmore in Co Donegal has a programme of measures to ensure that it can become independent of imported energy, create and safeguard jobs on the island and keep money in the island economy. 

The IEE funded project Smarter Multi Level Governance (SMILEGOV) is examining the major barriers to creating a low carbon society on islands.  It is bringing together the various stakeholders and the multilevels of governance required to achieve the EU target of 20% reduction in Carbon and 20% increase in renewable energies by the year 2020, ie less than 6 years from now.   The crux of the project is to engage all stakeholders including islanders to agree to the Pact of Islands.  The pact asks for commitment to examine and agree an island energy action plan within 12 months of signing the document.  The project will showcase 50 projects during its lifetime; we want to be one of those 50.

Points of Interest

1. Information Gathering.  Dr Shirley Gallagher has recently attended the Power Summit, CEF hosted Energy Seminar, Erasmus+ European Educational Funding, Education and the inspiring talk by Alastair McIntosh "Spiritual Resilience and Community Empowerment".  Where he spoke on climate change being a major threat to planetary wellbeing and how best to strengthen our natural and human ecologies to be able to bounce back from unexpected knocks.  Alastair McIntosh weaved his story based on his work in Scotland with both rural land reform and urban regeneration, forming the Isle of Eigg Trust and GalGael in Govan, Glasgow. 
2.  We have engaged with Enterprise Ireland, Donegal County Council, Leargas, Templederry Community Wind Farm, Friends of the Earth, FEASTA, Environmental Pillar, SECAD, Muintir na Tire, our parish priest Fr Pat Ward and various islanders around the world and a number of private companies to drive the programme to the next phase.
3. The format of the local authorities is changing along with the format of funding for LEADER and social inclusion projects.  These multi million funds will now be managed by the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC).  It is expected that the LCDC will consist of 15 people, 8 will be from the environmental, community and voluntary sector, 2 will be elected county councillor representatives.  These will be responsible for the management of funds on a county level and will come into being after the local elections in May.  
4.  We have a strategy to work with the media, including hopefully a year long fly on the wall documentary with TV3, close contact with Irish Radio International (www.irishradiointernational.com) and Rosses Radio http://www.rossesradio.com/ and our blogspot An Charraig ) as well as our facebook groups  Sustainable Islands and Linkedin  Sustainable Islands as well as Twitter  @shirleyatsyspro.  The hashtag is #cyclisle.  There will be a series of academic papers based on the journey culminating in a book.  An international TEDx conference with a theme of Sustainable Islands will take place during Earagil Arts Festival in 2015 (www.ted.com).

 There have been several presentations by Shirley Gallagher, on the topic of island regeneration in the last year including the following

Date	Place	In Conjunction with	Title
March 2013	Mullingar	Bioregions in Ireland-WCD	An Island Perspective
April 2013	Mullingar	Bioregions in Ireland-WCD	An Island Perspective for Stakeholders
September 2013	National Parliament, Aland	IEE-SMILEGOV	Future Job opportunities in Arainn mhor
November 2013	Arranmore Island, Co Donegal	IEE-SMILEGOV	Future Job opportunities in Arainn mhor
November 2013	London	Tangible Ireland	Fishing for a Future
December 2013	Cork	TEDx Cork Women	Freedom from Conformity Promo Video http://youtu.be/nmRJPSnrdPE
January 2014	Howth	Tangible Ireland	Arainn Mhor, An Island Initiative

       There have been 3 international news bulletins regarding the future of the island, including

1.       Euronews http://youtu.be/xFdNgIL07Oc

2.       Russian http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/735357/

3.       French (Channel 24) TV shows http://youtu.be/AzWwsn0fHJQ.  

These have focused mainly on the demise of the fishing industry but highlight the dramatic demise of the island over the last 30 years and the hope that energy generation could create jobs on the island.  The strength and tenacity of Island Fishermen has led to a strong lobby group of Donegal Fishermen insisting on their rights to farm their sea. 

The Irish and in particular the Islands have a story telling tradition, we are using our natural talents and working with others to gain a solution to the uncertainty that awaits the world.

5.       We have arranged a meeting with respect to applying for SEAI Better Energy Communities (BEC) fund for Wednesday 5^th March 2014 at 4pm at Ionad an Chrois Bhealaigh.  We hope to incorporate public bodies including the local authority, the cooperatives, HSE, schools and the church along with fuel poor and private homes in the application.  We are considering an application across the parish and have invited mainlanders to the meeting as well in what we hope is a joint venture.  We are interested in employing locals should we receive grant aid.  This journey has been made easier as a result of information gathered from Inis Mor and their consultants Energy Wise Consultants-maith leat.

 www.sustainableislands.eu