Geographic & Operational Catchment Area

DLDC’s extensive geographic coverage spans a North-South axis from Fanad to Bundoran, and an East-West axis from Carrigans to Killybegs. The catchment has an extensive (circa 250km) coastline bounded by the open Atlantic in the north and west, to the east/south-east is a virtual continuous border with Northern Ireland (circa 140km) including counties Tyrone, Derry and Fermanagh. Operating in the Border region presents both opportunities and challenges, in particular it creates barriers by way of National isolation, a factor which can be placed in context on consideration of the fact that Donegal’s actual land border with the Republic constitutes a distance of merely 9 km with Leitrim. Whilst the firms catchment region is inclusive of almost the entire county, the extreme northern Inishowen Peninsula in conjunction with the Gaeltacht regions to the extreme-west, have independent operational companies, namely Meitheal Forbairt na Gaeltachta (MFG) and the Inishowen Partnership respectively. DLDC’s main offices are located at 1 Millennium Court, Pearse Road, Letterkenny. The logistical and operational effectiveness of programme delivery throughout Donegal, continues to be a function of the sheer radial magnitude and the intensive rurality of the County. Given the catchment's peripherality - geographically, economically and socially - in the Irish context, extraneous challenges are presented to the Company by way of fragmented, marginalised, indigenous rural communities. In the National context, no other Partnership/Leader Company exists with such an extensive geographic sphere of influence.