Area covered:
County Waterford, excluding Waterford City and Ring (Gaeltacht = Irish-speaking area). Surface area: 1,280 km2Population: 52,000Economy and employment:Breakdown of the working population:Agriculture: 18%Industry: 25%Services and other: 57%Unemployment rate (for the South East region): 4.7%

Strengths:

- Attractive location for inward investment: proximity to ports and airports in Waterford and Cork- Best agricultural base in Ireland (along with East Cork), ensuring that while on-farm numbers will drop dramatically, farming will still make a significant financial contribution to the economy of the County- Road network in good repair- Areas of tremendous natural beauty- Industrious population

Weaknesses:

- Large areas of mountainous terrain, particularly in the Northwest and West of the County- Rivers Blackwater (West) and Suir (East) to limit development due to seasonal flooding- Employment, expenditure and industrial leakages from West, Mid and North Waterford entailed by rapid development of nearby towns of Clonmel, Fermoy, Midleton, Youghal, and Carrick-on-Suir- Slow employment growth between 1991 and 1996, despite the national level of economic development, due to a narrow industrial and service base, and the dependence on agriculture- No centres providing life-long learning opportunities catering for modern employment opportunities.

Opportunities:

- New sources of income to be looked for by farm families, thus unleashing new entrants into the labour market- Information Technology developments to transform work- New products in the tourism area to offer new job opportunities- Life-long learning to be available to all rural dwellers through distance learning- Programme planning, and co-ordination to ensure targeting, and better investment of resources- The development of a number of the rural villages as dormitory towns to provide the critical mass to allow service providers, and small businesses flourish, thus creating employment.

Threats:

- County Waterford seen by the outside world as an adjunct to Waterford City- Lack of life-long learning facilities, as modern work opportunities demand continuous upgrading of skills- Decline in agriculture to be rapid and irreversible if agricultural change is not managed, and indeed if agriculture is not promoted as a career- Indigenous diversification to be limited if basic levels of literacy, numeracy and IT are not attained by 95% of population- Globalisation considered as a threat as the County is dependent on agriculture and multinationals for the majority of the private employment opportunities.

Background:
Waterford Leader Partnership Ltd. is a limited liability company which was established in 1991 as a joint venture "Partnership" company between the Irish Government and the local Social Partners to carry out actions targeted at the long-term unemployed. From 1995, the company administered the Integrated Local Development Programme (under the Objective 1 Operational Programme for Local and Urban Rural Development) as well as the LEADER II initiative. It has also run other programmes in the field of IT, business development, education and training…

Current main areas of activity:
- Rural development actions under LEADER+, as well as LEADER National (under the National Development Programme 2000-2006)
- Running of Local Employment Services (targeted at the long-term unemployed and the socially excluded and coordinated by FÁS - Irish Employment and Training Agency - under the National Development Programme 2000-2006)
- Other actions focusing on the unemployed and community and youth initiatives within the framework of the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme (under the National Development Programme 2000-2006)
- IT training projects (SETT = South East Technology Training)
- SME development actions (under a national programme called SKILLNETS)
- The company also runs the South East European Centre, member of the European Carrefour network (EU information offices in rural areas)
- Waterford in Business (WIB) is the commercial arm of the company (consultancy contracts…).

Structure:
Board: tripartite statutory membership from State bodies, Social partners, the Community (+ 2 locally elected representatives)
Chairman: Paddy Gordon
Staff: 14
General manager: Jimmy Taaffe

Culinary Heritage

Quality food circles (international food fairs, exchange programme…)

UK (Cornwall), France (Brittany)

Mariculture

Market visits, training module

France (Brittany)

INTERREG II

Cross-border business development

UK (Wales)

Celtic Forum / Simetnica

Traditional music and dance cultural exchange

France (Brittany)

INTERREG II

Joint marketing for accommodation providers

UK (Wales)

Electronic tagging for farm livestock

Transfer of knowledge

UK (Cornwall)

INTERREG II

Trade network to support SMEs (CelticA)

UK (Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)

Crafts

Technical exchanges, joint marketing

France (Brittany), Finland (South West)

RECITE II

Development of an Internet marketing and trading system for micro-enterprises (Norbit)

Sweden, Germany, Netherlands

Equestrian

Joint marketing of equestrian tourism

Sweden, UK

LEONARDO

Rural development training

Spain, Italy, Norway

Rural tourism network

Transnational booking system for rural tourism holiday packages

Denmark, Italy (Sardinia)

ACCEPT

Fighting discrimination in rural areas

France, Italy, SpainFrance, Italy, Spain

Tulip/daffodil bulbs

Technical transfer for cultivation/marketing

Netherlands

CARREFOUR network

Numerous exchanges and joint projects

EU

Transnational co-operation proposed projects under LEADER+
- Rural business development through networking and transnational partnership: methodology for quality circles; international trade training module for SMEs; transnational business events/fairs
- Country markets as a mechanism for the promotion of local markets
- Innovative information and training systems for countryside management:
- Developing on-farm tourist activities (LEADER National)

Language skills within WLP:
- English +++
- French +++
- Spanish ++
- German ++
- Italian++