Local Democracy

Local partnerships can allow genuine community involvement and participation in economic and social policy. Their strength lies in the origins as a community led initiative. The aim of policy in this area should be to strengthen the partnerships and extend their role.

• The resources available to partnerships must be seen to be truly additional and should not displace existing public expenditure
• Resources must be clearly targeted to the most disadvantaged areas and to the most marginalised social groups
• Partnership development projects should be considered for similar access to tax concessions that have been made available to private developers
• The record of community enterprise initiatives throughout Ireland clearly demonstrates that local enterprise has an essential contribution to make to the development of the economy