Sean Fleming has called on Laois County Council to explain why Laois was the biggest loser in terms of funding under the School and Community Safety Measures for Disadvantaged Rural Areas under the CLÁR Programme, Measure 1.
Deputy Fleming was informed in the Dáil on July 26 that 24 Local Authorities made applications for funding under the programme. 101 (46%) were successful and 120 (54%) were not. The average payment for approved applications was €26,953.
Laois made 12 applications and only 1 (8%) was approved and 11 (92%) were not approved. Laois County Council received the lowest payment for any county: only €4,250 whereas the average payment to all counties was €113,430.
The Minister also informed me that “applications were assessed on the basis of their eligibility under the scheme criteria and on the quality of the documentation supporting their proposals as required in the scheme guidelines.”
Sean Fleming is calling for a full explanation to be given in relation to the applications submitted by Laois to see what went wrong, why the County lost out, can the decisions be appealed and what lessons have been learned for the future.
As a TD I have always demanded that when funding is made available at national level that every effort be made at local level to ensure the County is successful in drawing down it’s fair share of this funding.
SEE ALSO – Check out these lovely photos of Laois as captured by a local photographer
