Ms Gillian Buckley:

The Cathaoirleach makes hugely valid points. I endorse many of his insights. The easier we can make it for community groups, the better for everybody. They put their shoulder to the wheel on a voluntary time basis in many cases. Many of the projects do not have large access to capital. We, Clann Credo and Community Finance Ireland have helped bridge the gap, to use the pun. It is not enough in many cases. There would be ideas about front-loading the grants rather than having them be retrospective, but staging them so that one can still have insurance compliance. We know the rural regeneration fund front-loads 30% of the grant so that cash flows to the project and then it can make a claim and the next tranche will come. That is one way of doing it.

Speeding up the process of the grant claim is another aspect. We are always conscious that these are volunteers who may not have the skill set and expertise. What can we do to make it as easy and streamlined as possible? It is taxpayers' money so there has to be a level of compliance and everything have to be above board. Can we make it easier? Certainly, staged front-loading and more staged payments would allow cashflow. Matched finance is an element. Matched finance from the likes of us and Community Finance Ireland can be drawn down upfront and used almost to cashflow the business as well. The matched finance would be a term loan but it also helps cashflow to business. That, combined with maybe front-loading a portion of the grant, would take the burden and accelerate the drawdown.

One reason that we went into the bridging finance with the LEADER grants originally was that we knew the drawdown in our region was much lower and we had lost out on LEADER money as a result. We felt we had a very small fund in the Western Development Commission and thought that was a very good use of our expertise and funding. I agree with the Cathaoirleach that it is very low risk. As Mr. Traynor would echo, community groups have been phenomenal to work with. I have great admiration for every member of every community group, be it a sporting club, crèche or social housing. They do phenomenal work. The more we can do as a State to assist them, the better for everybody and our citizens.