| Age-Friendly Business Action Plan launched |
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5th September 2011
Minister Fergus O’Dowd was present yesterday at the launch of the Louth Age-Friendly Business Action Plan, which has set the vision of positioning Louth as Ireland’s most ready, prepared and active age-friendly business county supporting business to meet the economic opportunity of people living longer and healthier lives.
The objective of this Action Plan is to help sustain, support and create jobs and new models of flexible value creating enterprise through developing Louth as a leader in age-friendly business.
The Louth Economic Forum established the Age Friendly Business Forum, which is chaired by Gavin Duffy Louth based Entrepreneur, Media Coach, RTE’s Dragon’s Den Presenter and Public Speaker. The Forum has 10 members, drawn from Louth’s Chambers of Commerce, Rotary, Netwell and CASALA Centre’s, Louth’s Older People’s Forum and Local Authority management.
In preparing the Action Plan the Forum consulted extensively with all the relevant stakeholders to include Louth’s Age Friendly County Alliance, Older People’s Forum, the Business Community, County Development Board, and County Council Members and the Ageing Well Network. All feedback was carefully considered and adopted where appropriate. This process of consultation provided invaluable insights into the age friendly concept, and gave the Forum excellent support and encouragement for the Action Plan.
The plan highlights the opportunities for new products and services for companies in the region and nationally and recognises the opportunities around building and encouraging the development and nurturing of wisdom in the workforce.
“Our collaborative and user-centric approach puts us at the forefront of innovation, age-friendly research and inclusive models for economic development worldwide. The action plan integrates the economic opportunities identified through the Louth Age-Friendly County Initiative within the full spectrum of economic development in the county including; Foreign Direct Investment, Sustainable Energy, Indigenous Industry, Tourism & Heritage, Education & training, etc...” said Rodd Bond, director of the Netwell Centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Andrew Macfarlane, Commercialisation & Centre Manager, CASALA at Dundalk Institute of Technology stated “this action plan provides a excellent opportunity for business to engage in a unique framework across the region and provides a platform for businesses nationally and internationally to address global markets. For example; recent developments undertaken here at CASALA in connected health and telehealth care have indentified significant costs savings and abilities to transform for our healthcare systems.”
Enhancing Longer Living in Smarter Places
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