Minister Ring voices concerns over local authorities not spending funds allocated to them

Local authorities who don’t spend funds allocated to them by his department have come in for criticism by the Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring.

He was speaking at the launch of the new Islandeady Community Action Plan 2019-2004.

The minister said he and the secretary-general of his department spent the months of July and August ringing around local authorities throughout the country asking them to spend money that had been allocated to them.

Last week two projects were taken out of Mayo because the money allocated to them was not spent. In 2017 a grant of €300,000 was allocated to Mayo County Council for road works in Westport. Out of that grant €52,000 had been spent in three years.

“That’s unacceptable,” said the minister. “My department is putting the funding into local authorities and it is time they ensured the money was spent.”

Minister Ring said while Mayo County Council was better than most councils in that respect he would love to give the money direct to communities. But he can’t do that, it must come through a state agency.

Speaking in Islandeady Community Centre he said reintroduced Local Improvement Scheme funding which had been dropped for some years. But for every €100,000 his department paid out, the local authorities who availed of them deducted 13,000 for administration. That’s not the way it should be. It should have been put into road works.

His department has responsibility for outdoor recreation funding which can deal with schemes in the Islandeady Action Plan for walks and infrastructure. Proposals in the plan could be done under the town and village scheme. Road lighting could also be done and attention given to the needs for extending the community centre.

He asked local councillors to select one or two schemes from the Islandeady plan enter them into the town and village schemes “and if I’m there I’ll deliver the town and village scheme,” he said.

He said it was an ambitious plan and was doable. “This is a community working together. You have a future. The funding is there despite what people might say. The schemes are there. And I won’t be found wanting.”

The chairman of the community council Liam Keaveney said the plan did not happen overnight. A significant amount of work went into it. It took over two years to bring it to completion.

“This is not Liam Keaveney’s action plan. Nor is it Michael Ring’s or anyone else's. This is the Islandeady community plan. Like everything in life everything itemised and detailed in the action plan will not be achieved overnight. The journey will be long, sometimes painful and never ending.”

He said that by the time the action plan is completed in 2004 Islandeady will be different. It will look different and there will be a positive vibrancy like never before. A community moving in unity. He was extremely optimistic for the future. Positive developments were happening as he spoke.

Mr. Keaveney said they had an advantage in being strategically located between two thriving commercial and tourist towns of Westport and Castlebar with the new N5 road which will be starting shortly coming through Islandeady. “It will be a significant advantage to Islandeady and we’ll have to capitalise on it,” he said

 

“This plan will help us to ensure that islandeady does not get left behind that we don’t become the community that time forgot,” he said.

This plan envisages schemes to enhance local business and tourist opportunities; to make roads safer through the village; to maintain a beautiful environment; to protect local heritage; to care for the community, to nurture young people in the community and give them the space and opportunities to learn and thrive; to get access to broadband, and to improve care services for older people and to protect them from isolation

He said the population of Islandeady was 1,350 people. “We will need all of them to stand up and be counted. We will need money from our elected officials and whatever support can be given.

Local councillors, he said, had been good to Islandeady and he looked forward to receiving their support for the present plan. He had not been as influential with some of their local Dail representatives to get development work done.

But he thanked Minister Ring who he said had brought great energy and commitment to his brief and was a champion for rural communities through Ireland.

Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, representing the chairman of Mayo County Council, Brendan Mulroy said the various proposals set out were very ambitious and members of the council supported the implementation of of it.

The MC James O’Malley, chairman of the Community Futures Steering Group, reviewed the benefits which resulted from the previous plan.