A MAJOR €1.3m multi-sports complex and remote working facility has been officially opened in Banteer, which will be “transformational” for the Duhallow area.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, officially opened the new facility on Saturday.

The project, which received €1.3 million under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF), also includes a remote working hub which will benefit workers and businesses in the region.

Minister Humphreys said the project will be “transformational” for the Duhallow area, and congratulated the entire community and project partners on completing the project.

“This project, and many others like it, which have been funded by my Department’s Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, represent everything that I have been saying for years about rural Ireland.

“It is a showcase of what an energetic and active community, with a fierce sense of pride and place, can achieve when they are given the opportunities and funding streams to make things happen,” she said.

Denis Withers, Secretary of Banteer Community Sportsfield CLG, paid tribute to everyone who made the project possible, “in particular the hard-working Banteer Community Sportsfield group, its officers and members, local sports clubs, neighbours, businesses, schools, public representatives and the Board and Management and staff of IRD Duhallow.”

“This is a project which has been developed and nurtured at a community level first and foremost, and this has been reflected in the support received from the local community, and all the fundraisers and ticket sellers who worked so hard to make this vision a reality,” he said, also thanking Minister Humphreys and her Department for “generous support of the community in Banteer”.

Bandon

While in the county, the Minister also paid a visit to Bandon, where a €5.5m regeneration project is planned for the town centre, that will see the redevelopment of vacant buildings, including converting a former bank building into a community facility and the redevelopment of the old town library into a remote working facility. The Minister met many of the stakeholders involved in the regeneration plans for Bandon, as well as paying a visit to Bandon Country Market, a food co-operative which has been running in the town since 1976.