Group hits out at 20% development funds cut
South Kerry Development Partnership chief executive Noel Spillane said the group was “extremely disappointed” with its allocation from the Rural Development Programme announced last week by Environment Minister Phil Hogan.
The revised allocation received was €10m, down from an original allocation of €12.37m.
Mr Spillane said the reduced budget, which includes a ring-fenced allocation of €196,000 for the south Kerry gaeltacht area, was totally unjustified.
“We currently have new project applications with a value of more than €300,000 from the south Kerry gaeltacht area, and this allocation means we don’t even have sufficient funding available to deal with the older, legacy, projects,” he said.
Mr Spillane said many people and organisations had put substantial time and effort into preparing project applications under the Leader programme but it appeared the South Kerry partnership would not be in a position to provide funding to all of them.
“This comes at a time when communities and businesses in rural areas such as south Kerry are under extreme pressure trying to survive and need all the assistance they can get,” said Mr Spillane.
“The press release from the department announcing the release of funding this week under Leader was particularly misleading in that it gives the impression plenty of funding is available for projects.
“This is despite the fact the minister clearly knows this is not the case and had cut the funding overall.
“This is another example of the contempt with which the Government seems to be treating rural Ireland and the crisis it is facing.’’
The issue will come before the partnership’s board at its monthly meeting next week.
Of the 245 businesses set up in the area last year, 214 were by people who had been long-term unemployed.
The enterprises are in a range of sectors, including professional services, trades, beauty and health, arts and crafts, food, and childcare.
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