SWMDC (Leader) suffers savage cuts

Leader faces funding shortfall


Edwin McGreal
edwinmcgreal@mayonews.ie

South West Mayo Development Company (Leader) will have to defer some planned projects in the area following last week’s news that they have received a funding cut of 17.5 per cent.
The Mayo North East Leader Partnership allocation is just over €9.5 million.
Originally allocated a figure of €12.15 million in 2008 to carry out projects under the 2007-2013 Rural Development Plan, SWMDC had their funding revised downwards to €10.36 million. The Chief Executive of SWMDC Gerry O’Neill has huge concerns with the cuts.
“We’ve already been paying out to projects on the basis of the figure we were allocated in 2008. We’ve already paid out close to €4.5 million, with up to €3.5 million remaining to be paid to projects and meeting administration costs.
“Spending was embargoed in February of this year until now and the news means we’ve just about €2 million remaining to be allocated to projects but we’ve evaluated projects of closer to €3 million so we’ve a €1 million shortfall. At the moment we have more projects than money,” he added.
SWMDC identifies and obtains EU Leader funding for the benefit of rural communities and businesses. They also administer schemes such as the Rural Social Scheme, the Community Employment Scheme, the Western Region Drugs Taskforce, the Community Development Programme, the National Childcare Investment Programme, the Rural Walks Scheme and the Equality for Women Initiative.
The assimilation of the former Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta areas (MFG) of Achill, Ballycroy and Tourmakeady adds to the difficulties the cuts will cause, Gerry O’Neill believes.
“The best part of €1 million worth of projects won’t get funding in the Gaeltacht areas because of inadequate funding. We’re concerned that the allocation for Gaeltacht areas is far less than what is needed to meet the demands of those areas,” he said.
So how will the projects be evaluated in light of the funding cuts?
“We will be having a board meeting soon and we will have to prioritise projects and some will have to be deferred. We will have to try to prioritise enterprise projects which will help job creation but we cannot dismiss community projects either. We will have to pick and choose where we allocate when, for the most part, all projects are equally meritorious,” he said.
Mr O’Neill criticised such a cut to SWMDC when the national average cut across the 35 Leader groups is 13 per cent.
“The overall programme has been reduced but nine groups have had increases. We wouldn’t be satisfied that the rationale was right for these increases. We’re a peripheral county with Gaeltacht areas. The purpose of the Leader programme is to bolster rural areas so as to redress the imbalance between those local economies and more affluent areas. How can this be done when places like here in greatest need of funding are cut while other areas are not,” he asked.
He said SWMDC will continue to push for additional funding. The funding cuts to the rural development companies nationwide comes after Troika negotiations reduced the rate of Irish government funding to Leader. The European Union contribution has remained constant.

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