Donegal County Council formally established its Research and Policy Unit in September 2001. This is an innovative and new development for Donegal County Council, which has as its core objective the need to build up expertise in research, evaluation and policy development within County Donegal. The unit is currently engaged in a number of research projects, which will continue to influence the development of policy in County Donegal for many years to come.
The team within the Research and Policy Unit consists of a Research & Policy Manager - Ms Loretta Mc Nicholas and a Research Officer - Ms. Rosita Mc Fadden
Activities of the Unit in 2010
- The Research and Policy Unit act as the social inclusion analysts for Donegal County Councils Social Inclusion Unit (DCC SIU). Under the guidance of Donegal County Development Boards Social Inclusion Measures Group and DCCS SIU, the Research and Policy completed a piece of research designed to determine the current unemployment landscape within the county (Phase 1) and the real impact that unemployment and the recession is having on the lives of people and their families. (Phase 2). This report was launched on the 20th October 2010.
- The unit received a Citation of Excellence at the Chamber of Ireland Awards, October 2010 for its work on 'Donegal County Development Boards Planning for Inclusion: A Statistical and GIS Toolkit 2009'
- The Research and Policy Unit is currently working with the Planning Section in Donegal County Council on the extraction and organisation of key datasets according to specific planning themes to feed into the review of County Development Plan 2006-2012.
- The Research and Policy Unit have recently been awarded funding under the Collaboration Theme of INTERREG IVA to complete the ‘SPACEial North West Project' which stands for Spatial Planning and Collaborative Exchange of Information and Learning in the North West Region. The aim of this project is to assist with more evidenced based spatial planning, policy making and service delivery in the North West Region Cross Border Area for many years to come. This project will be managed by the unit and will commence in November 2010.
- At local level multi-agency Children’s Services Committee were established in four pilot sites throughout the country by the OMCYA in 2007, Donegal Childrens Services Committee is one of those pilot sites. The Research and Policy Unit, DCC and the HSE act as joint chair of the Information Sub Group. The role of this group is to assist the CSC profiling, auditing and planning children's services within the county.
- The Research and Policy Unit for the last number of years have provided monitoring, evaluation and research support to the Donegal Road Safety Working Group and the Road Safety Officer.
- The Research and Policy Unit are currently working on the economic profiling of the county and to this end are developing papers according to the priorities of Donegal County Development Board. As part of this process the unit has recently updated its database of Community Sports and Arts facilities 2010 within the county.
- The unit deals with a large number of statistical/information requests from the General Public, Public Bodies, Funding Bodies, County Manager & Staff of Donegal County Council.
To access previous Research and Policy Reports please see publications section of Community and Enterprise .
If you would like to find out further information about any of the activities of the Research and Policy Unit please contact Loretta Mc Nicholas at (074) 91 72569 or email lmcnicho@donegalcoco.ie