1 October 1997
By TOM GILLESPIE
TELECOM Eireann plan to invest £1 million Information Age Town funding in Castlebar "as soon as possible", it was revealed last night.
According to Mr. Richard Wynne, chairman of the Castlebar Information Age Town Steering Committee, this would be the minimum they would be allocating to the region and the figure could be substantially higher.
Despite being pipped by Ennis for the title as Ireland's first Information Age Town, the Castlebar committee were upbeat about the adjudicators decision.
Mr. Wynne said they would be meeting later this week to prioritise their list of proposals to Telecom.
Mr. Wynne said: "There are all sorts of possibilities. With a £1m in the bank and with it coming from Telecom as an investment in a local town there is every possibility that we can get an equal amount matched in EU funding."
Together with the financial pledges of support they had received for their submission it was possible that any investment that would take place world be a multi-million pound one.
Mr. Wynne continued: "Already Castlebar has been approached by a number of companies offering to make their services available to us so that we can plan the best way of utilising this investment."
Mr. Wynne added: "Telecom are anxious to work with Castlebar and we expect that their initial plans will be drafted within the next month or so."
As well as investing an initial £1m in Castlebar, Telecom Eireann's chief >executive, Mr. Alfie Kane said they would provide free voicemail facilities to everyone in the town
See page 22 for full report from the Point Depot and editorial.
