The solution came to Old Leighlin when in 2018 their community leaders participated in a meeting hosted by Carlow County Development Partnership for community groups interested in exploring options around climate change. The positive energy in the room was palpable and with that a clear vision emerged from the meeting – to establish Old Leighlin as an energy efficient community.

But how and where would the community source the required €10,000 to engage a consultant? Carlow County Development Partnership came up with the solution – to propose a new partnership model whereby a joint application to SEAI would be made to secure the critical funding of €10,000 – and the model went a step further – what was crucial for the community was that Carlow County Development Partnership agreed to cashflow the project and as a result, totally alleviated the community of having to fund raise. This meant that the community leaders could immediately focus on developing the Energy Master Plan.