The 2026 PPN National Conference took place on 24 and 25 September at the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone. Delegates from all 31 PPNs from across the country were present and this year’s conference was hosted by Roscommon PPN.
The theme of the conference was “connect, collaborate and empower” and the two days were filled with presentations, panel discussions, smaller workshops in breakout rooms and a gala dinner with a speech by the Minister of State, Jerry Buttimer.
Like many good conferences, much of the networking or “connections and collaborations” part of the theme of the conference took place over coffee, lunches and general chatting between all the delegates. People could find out more about one another’s networks and the areas of work being concentrated on, over impromptu conversations. Delegates were delighted to have time to make new friends and new allies and learn more about the challenges and strengths of each other’s county and city councils. As always, delegates really enjoyed the site visits away from the main conference hall, where even more networking could take place, and this year Roscommon PPN offered its visitors a walking tour of Roscommon, a boat trip on Lough Ree, a visit to Kilbride parish and a recreational walk to Yew Point. While break out workshops included sessions on community climate leadership and community resilience in action.
All in all, nearly 300 people from the 31 PPNs across the Republic of Ireland spent time together learning, sharing skills, reflecting and socialising with one another, to ensure the ongoing strength of the PPNs.
The PPNs were set up to share information and training opportunities within their memberships, so that groups could participate more in local authority decision making. It seemed more important than ever, that groups felt supported by their PPNs to be empowered to participate more in the core work, of the PPNs. It also seemed very important, that groups are supported to be resilient, motivated and protected, and this was the message from the Hodson Bay Hotel.
One question delegates kept coming back to, throughout the two days was, “how do we make the core work of the PPNs more interesting to our wider membership?” It’s very easy to encourage people to volunteer or be active in their member groups. They have a certain amount of intrinsic motivation for this, but how do PPN Representatives, Staff and Secretariat encourage their groups to get more involved in the core work of committees and sub-committees?
The conference didn’t really have a short answer for that: but part of it might be, to encourage the PPN Representatives, Secretariat and staff to hold a spotlight over the very good work that is being done, to try and form more and more alliances between the PPNs and to keep offering information and support to all member groups who join the collectives.
The answer isn’t easy and Dublin City PPN will be trying to find solutions to this in its upcoming 5 year strategic plan, Plenary meeting in November and new suggested meeting dates and update calendar for the Representatives in 2027.
This years’ delegates to the 2026 PPN National Conference were: Adele O’Connor, Susan Collins, Brian Greene, Frank Foley, Catherine O’Toole, Steven Doody, Ruth Powell and Siobhán O’Shea.
If you would like to express your interest in being a delegate next year, please contact staff as soon as possible.
