ISSUES

Everyone agrees that Ballylongford would benefit from more opportunities for work, employment and business. The challenge lies in identifying how best to achieve this.

In our early discussions with people living in Ballylongford, some of the comments that have been made include:

• We have been losing businesses in the village over the years
• It is difficult to know what to do to change things round
• There is a real need to attract more people to live and work in Ballylongford
• We need to find ways of encouraging people - especially tourists - to come to Ballylongford and create new custom for our existing businesses
• People don't make use of the resources and potential that we have
• There is a lot of unemployment and under-employment in the village
• I would prefer to work in the village rather than have to travel to Listowel, Tralee or Limerick
• It is difficult to motivate people to be more active
• We need to do something for the young people - to keep them in the village
• We have tried various things, but nothing has worked
• Having a centre for the community as well as small businesses would be good
• Creche facilities would be important
• Does Ballylongford really need to have an IT centre?
• The two festivals show that we can bring people in
• Can computers really help us?
• A Centre would need to cater for older people too
• If we wait for the Landbank development, we will be waiting a long time
• We need to use our indigenous resources
• We need to have women involved
• There are talents and skills in the village that are not being made enough of