Mr. Allan Mulrooney:

The Western Development Commission has grown expertise in drawing down EU funding. The Deputy used the word “onerous”. It can be quite challenging. With some of the paperwork, it can take quite a long time to understand how it is done. Unlike many of the applications we have in Ireland, whether it is grant aid or support, it is rarely one application and one is through the process. Most of the EU grants and projects with which we work have an application and then there is a consistent level of paperwork needed to draw down the funds over different stages. We have built up such expertise internally and we are working with community groups on the ground to try and help them to understand how they can do that.

On whether they always know what is available and when, they certainly do not but those EU supports come down in different stages and they are released in different stages so we are working with lots of community groups. More often than not, they need a lead partner. We have become a lead partner on a number of those across the region in the past couple of years. They vary depending on the type of project. It could be anything from the blue circular economy to niche tourism. When it comes to a community group trying to draw down funding, aligning that to what they are trying to do can often be the challenge. We can find projects that align with our current strategy or with a different organisation or a county council. If they are looking at the green economy, there could be EU funding coming down the tracks that they can apply for and we can find a way for it to fit with their own strategy.