Funding blunder ‘jeopardises hundreds of jobs’

HUNDREDS of food-related rural jobs are on ice due to the state’s bureaucratic blunder in placing around €25 million in EU funds into a non-food category, according to Kilkenny LEADER Partnership.

Partnership chief executive, Declan Rice, said 35 people have been denied jobs in Kilkenny alone as he has had to refuse funding to 17 micro-enterprise projects. These include a distillery, a bakery, a sausage producer, a cookery school, a food-packing facility, a food retreat and a salad dressing start-up.

The LEADER groups are becoming increasingly annoyed at the Government’s failure to find a solution to the problem, which came to light in January.