Goals & Objectives

The agreed Goals & Objectives of Mayo County Development Board are:

Training & Job Creation
To attract and support industry and investment within Mayo and to ensure that the mechanisms exist to facilitate people in securing employment that utilises their talents and allows them to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

Necessary Infrastructure
That Mayo is equipped with the physical and other infrastructure necessary to make the County a more attractive place for investment, job creation and economic development.

Mayo Naturally
That Mayo is promoted and marketed in such a way as to derive optimum social, cultural and economic benefit from the unique landscape, culture and quality of life of the County.

Tackling Poverty & Social Exclusion
To endeavour to eliminate poverty and ensure people are afforded access to adequate resources so as to provide them with an acceptable standard of living.

An Inclusive Society
To ensure that all people living in Mayo feel valued, are respected as individuals, and feel part of an inclusive community & County.

Necessary Childcare & Youth Services
To support families, carers and other professionals in providing children and young people with facilities and appropriate frameworks within which they can develop in a holistic manner, for the benefit of themselves and society as a whole.

A Healthy & Caring Society
To build a people centred health service, which is responsive to the health and social service needs of everyone in the County.

Education for All
That everybody in Mayo has the opportunity to access appropriate education and training provision necessary to allow them to realise their full potential.

A Thriving Culture
That the cultures of all of the people of Mayo will be recognised, valued and supported to enhance the local high quality of life.

A Spatial Perspective
That the strengths of all parts of Mayo bring maximum benefit to everybody in the County and that the potential of the whole County is unlocked for the good of all.

Co-ordinated Service Delivery
That agencies with a service delivery role operate in a manner that ensures that decisions are made in a consistent, open and accountable way and that service delivery is integrated to ensure that maximum benefit is derived from available resources.

For the CDB to achieve its aims it will have to answer these four basic questions:

1. Where are we now?
   • What is the social and cultural situation of the County/City and its citizens?
   • What is the area size and its population?
   • Where do the people live and work?
   • What drives the economy?
   • How does the area compare with its neighbours, with the region and with the country?
   • What are the key social features?
   • What services are available and from whom?
   • What are the area's strengths and weaknesses?
   • What is the nature and extent of social exclusion?
   • How would its cultural position be characterised?
2. Where do we want to go?
   • What kind of place and living standards do we want to live by the year 2010.
   • What kind of place would we like our county to be in the year 2010?
   • Is this realistic? Is it realistically possible?
   • How should it differ from now?
   • Will the share of agriculture/industry/services change?
   • What is needed to ensure the social fabric is right?
   • How should the situation have changed?
   • What cultural objectives can be set?
3. How will we get there?
   • How will we get from a to b, what are the options available to us and which one seems more suitable?
   • Are various development options available?
   • What are they?
   • What strategy is being persued now?
   • How might a new one differ?
   • Can different economic choices be made?
   • Do the choices differ within the county?
   • Are the choices realistic?
4. How will we know we are getting there?
   • When the route is chosen you should monitor the progress being made, is it fast enough and do we need to change our direction?
   • Can goals be quantified, e.g. increased living standards, reduced exclusion, educational attainment, indicators of a good social structure, cultural vibrancy.
   • Can key milestones be identified?
   • How should the CDB strategy be ultimately evaluated?

Asking these questions however will be difficult, relating them to local situations, identifying existing strategies and future options but asking questions is the only starting point in a project like this. This will require a thorough systematic approach.

The approach we are using is an Eight-Step Strategy.

This strategy will have a ten year vision but will also have three and five year targets.. Mayo County Council have appointed a Director of Community & Enterprise, John Coll, to implement this process. A community forum has been established in each of the seven electoral areas in Mayo. These fora were established in February/March prior to the Board being set up. The fora then elected a representative from each of its three clusters (social, cultural, economic) to represent them on the Mayo County Community Forum which is made up of twenty-one members. Two of the Mayo County Community Forum's members sit on the Mayo County Development Board.

View the MCDB members roster.