Cork County Council to pump €3.5m into Leader programmes

Cork County Council is prepared to put €3.5m of its own money into Leader programmes to bridge a massive government cut to their funding.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey got agreement in principle from councillors to put the money into Leader over the next five years after the county allocation was slashed in the forthcoming five-year programme from €49m to €13.9m.

Councillors expressed anger at the cuts, many criticising the Government for being anti-rural and for putting many jobs and community projects in the region at serious risk.