Delay in Leader funding leads to war of words

A delay in Leader funding for Kilmurry Museum has sparked a war of words between Environment Minister Phil Hogan and West Cork Development Partnership.

Mr Hogan has singled out a delay in allocating €500,000 to a historical society in Kilmurry within his broader criticism of “the inefficiency being displayed in some local development companies”.

He said only 43% of total funding approved under the Leader programmes over the last four years has been approved. Some €39m allocated by the Department of the Environment to the 2012 Leader was unspent at the end of last year.

This meant that only 60% of last year’s cash allocation was drawn down by the local development companies, with just over six months remaining for project approvals, he said.

“The poor performance of local development companies has been a feature of the programme to date,” Mr Hogan stated. “Earlier this year, when a temporary embargo on approvals was placed on local development companies in order to facilitate a review by the Department, I was pressed to release funding to projects approved in principle, which I was told were ready to proceed, the only thing preventing them from commencing was confirmation of financial support from Leader.

“These projects had a total value of €42m. However, upon lifting the embargo, it subsequently emerged that projects to the value of just over €25m will actually proceed. The rest will not now go ahead.”

Mr Hogan said, again, just over 60% of the total amount initially advised by local development companies, therefore, was actually required for these projects. He was perplexed that the same local development companies that were under-performing in terms of project approvals were now the loudest in complaining about the funding they have been allocated.

WCDP’s rural development manager, Ivan McCutcheon, said his West Cork group is to due to review any outstanding funding applications in August, then issue its decisions by end of December. WCDP has until the end of 2014 to draw down funding. He says the group will easily meet this deadline, even though it is six months tighter than in previous Leader programmes.

“We have around €150,000 left,” said Mr McCutcheon. “In reality, we have a lot more projects than we have money, and those funds will definitely be drawn down before the end of 2014.

“In the case of Kilmurry Museum, the minister is making it look like there’s a file just sitting around on someone’s desk. In fact, the museum is to be built on land donated by a local farmer, and that land must yet be transferred from the trustees to the limited company.

“We are onto them on a weekly basis. The local group has no issue with us. It is wrong of the minister to present that as tardiness on our part, and then generalise across the whole Leader programme nationwide, having started out with a statement that is false in the first place.”

Mr McCutcheon said it was misleading to suggest that money is going unspent due to poor budget management by local development companies. He said the department has a cash flow issue, which it is trying to disguise.

“I am disappointed that the minister, who is supposed to be a champion of the programme, is continually trying to undermine our work,” said Mr McCutcheon.

Kilmurry Historical and Archaeological Association stated that it has experienced nothing but promptness, efficiency and co-operation from WCDP.

The group stated: “The delay in our application being forwarded to the Department of the Environment is due to one outstanding local issue that we expect to be resolved in the next two weeks, and that issue is on our side, not WCDP. To accuse WCDP of being tardy and inefficient is totally inaccurate and dangerously misleading.

“Our concerns lie in Minister Hogan’s document, Putting People First, in which he plans to merge the development companies with local authorities. We do not support this plan in any way and regard it as a totally retrograde step for community groups. We are 100% satisfied with the way WCDP are managing and supporting community groups and cannot see the reason in fixing something that is not broken.”