30 July 1997
Castlebar is one of the four centres nationally to be shortlisted by Telecom Eireann in their bid to establish Ireland's first Information Age Town. The others are Ennis, Killarney and Kilkenny. They were chosen from an entry of fifty-one.
It is a tremendous achievement by all concerned to have ended up in this position in a project which will be worth £15 million to the overall winner.
But it was the blanket support from the entire community which, we believe, was the gelling factor in the compilation of such a successful submission.
Richard Wynne, as the chairperson of the Castlebar Information Age Town (CIAT) Steering Committee has worked tirelessly since last November in achieving this goal.
So too have Castlebar Chamber of Commerce President, Frank Greene and the other members of the steering committee Rory Casey, John Condon (Town Clerk), Mark Coyne, Ann Crowley, Alec Fleming, Eoin Garavan, Michael Gavin, Pat Jennings, Finian Joyce, Tony Mannion, Regina McGarrigle and Richard Thorn.
Telecom will instal a phone, personal computer and voice-mail facility in every home in the winning town and all businesses will get ISDN data line and public services will be available electronically. Even the runners-up will benefit under the high-tech plan.
Now the adjudicators will visit Castlebar on Monday August 25 to further vet the application. It will the first appraisal of the four front-runners, giving Castlebar the opportunity to set the adjudication agenda. The others will be visited in the weeks following and it will be mid-September before the overall winner is announced.
While we have qualified to the top four, there is still work to be done and an impression to be made on the visiting adjudicators.
CIAT would welcome any suggestions on how best they could be further impressed on the day. The galvanising of the entire community in making the application was a major contributory factor in our success so far.
This is amply illustrated by the fact that CIAT did not employ the services of professional consultants. Instead they relied on the voluntary expertise that is available within the town.
The submission, which is still top secret, stands as a lasting monument to the development of Castlebar and the prospects which may come in the future, especially if Castlebar was to be the town selected for the telecommunications revolution of the 21st century.
