Councillor Declan McDonnell:

I would certainly say "Yes". There are such situations.

Local authorities probably did not need such funding in the good days, but there is certainly a need now for funding for many projects. I have a figure in my head of €8.5 million which was left behind in one year, because matching funding was not available. There are projects that local authorities could do with EU funding, and some of the county councils have done that in the past.