All interested groups are invited to a meeting on October 11 with a view to establishing a national committee regarding the UN International Year of the Co-operative 2012.

The United Nations has designated 2012 as the ‘International Year of the Co-op 2012’.  This is a major international event and is also an important opportunity for us here in Ireland to encourage and promote the cooperative approach.  The three key goals are to increase awareness, to promote cooperative enterprise and to improve the supports, structures and environment for cooperatives.

Organisations involved with cooperatives are most likely to have events organised and a plan of activity for the year already in place.  However the purpose of coming together and forming a ‘National Committee’ is to coordinate our various individual efforts and to see what can be done together across sectors for this very important occasion.

It is proposed that the meeting will be held in Croke Park Conference Centre on Tuesday the 11^th of October 2011 - starting at 2.30pm.

For more information please contact John Fitzgerald, CEO, Co-operative Development Society on 01-2401334 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it