30 May 2025

Community Fund

RISE Community Fund awards cash grants in Castlebar to scale use of technology

A small business, primary school and community centre in Castlebar and surrounding townlands were awarded the RISE grants in partnership with National Broadband Ireland

Three community groups including a family-run business, a school and a community centre in and around Castlebar have received a quick cash injection to invest in new technology thanks to the RISE Community Fund supported by National Broadband Ireland (NBI).

Established by NBI Chairman, David McCourt, RISE has awarded over 140 cash grants across the country to rural organisations seeking to boost their digital ecosystems. The fund is further supported by corporate sponsors including KN Circet, KPMG, Test Triangle, DreamDev Technologies, and TLI Group.

The latest funding comes off the back of a call for entries that NBI had announced as part of its national roadshow celebrating areas of the country that have shown the highest demands for its new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan.

Receiving the grants of €1000 each were St. Peter & Paul National School in Knockafall, Murrays Recycled Plastic, a family-run business in Castlebar, and Islandeady Community Centre in Rinnaseer.

With nearly 15,000 properties in Mayo now able to order or pre-order high-speed, reliable broadband on the new NBI network thanks to the Government’s National Broadband Plan, David McCourt, Chairman of NBI and founder of RISE, explained why he was keen to visit the area and give back to the community with these grants.

“We’re delighted to have had this opportunity to meet with a fantastic array of community groups in and around Castlebar and give a financial boost to those who really want to capitalise on their new high-speed connectivity. We received an amazing number of entries from people looking to embrace new technologies to scale the impact of their work, which paints a bright future for rural communities such as Castlebar,” said McCourt.

NBI recently announced that over 3,696 connections in County Mayo have already been made to the NBI network so far. Take-up of NBI’s fibre broadband in Mayo is at 30% overall and is highest in rural areas of the county near Castlebar where take-up has surpassed 43%.

Sheila Murray, owner of Murray’s Recycled Plastic, is one of the connected NBI customers to have received the RISE grant funding: “As a small family run business, we’re absolutely delighted to have been awarded this grant funding from RISE and NBI, which will give us a fantastic opportunity to invest in upskilling our team on digital marketing strategies to help us grow our business online.

“We take great pride in representing Castlebar and County Mayo as a manufacturer focussed on environmentally friendly sustainable products, and being connected to high-speed broadband with NBI coupled with receiving grant funding from RISE is a massive boost to our plans to expand our customer reach.”

NBI is reminding Mayo residents to also visit their website at nbi.ie to check whether their home, farm or business is included in the National Broadband Plan and to sign up for Eircode specific updates on the rollout.

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