Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To my knowledge, all schemes operated by our local authorities have to be publicly advertised and an application will either meet the criteria or it will not. That is how funding is allocated. It is not allocated on the basis of politics or weighting towards a particular region. It has to be publicly advertised and all applicants are duly considered and analysed. The funds are then allocated on the basis of the quality of the application.