Mr. Tony Cunningham:

I have previously said on the record that one of the beauties of the service in Cuisle is that staff are very much part of it and have developed Cuisle into what it is. We took on the building in 1997 and developed it extensively over the past 22 years. Most of that was funded by grants and local fundraising. The staff in the past year raised funds towards the matching funding for the LEADER grant, which were some of the figures to which the Deputy referred. We qualified for 75% of a €216,000 LEADER grant. We had to then raise €50,000 for that. Some €25,000 was secured through the Athlone municipal district. The remainder was fundraised locally. That fund is still there, as it was not spent. The LEADER grant was also not spent because we would have been undoing the work of the grant with the electrical works. The grant was for the upgrade and removal of the institutional look of Cuisle to try to make it more like a hotel and, therefore, more appealing to the public and more comfortable for our members. This would involve a theme running through the centre, such as a hotel, and enhancing the look of the corridors, bedrooms, en suite bathrooms and reception area, including carpets and wallpaper and so on. The problem was if one were to then do the electrical and fire-safety works, one would need to chase the wiring through the wallpaper and the carpets. We asked about this on a number of occasions and the Roscommon LEADER Partnership has worked very well with us. That fund still sits there on hold. It would have been negligent of us to spend that money and undo a lot of the work later on. The funds that were raised were then put towards that. I am not be familiar with the entire series of smaller fundraisers. Individual staff members also run fundraising events and some people make donations and so on.