Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

Towns and villages across Ireland that would benefit from walking trails and new footpaths that would create loop walks for people to use are currently disadvantaged due to the strict criteria. Do all applications go through the local authority or do some of them go through the community groups? I will give an example. One town I represent in Meath West was refused measure 1 of the outdoor recreation funding for a short stretch of footpath needed to complete the path as it did not meet the criteria of the confines of a town and did not link up with any recreational facilities despite it going out to a GAA pitch, which is recreation in itself, and being a mile outside the confines of the town. Maybe if the criteria was eased, many towns and villages would be in a position to avail of this funding.

I have a couple of quick points. Do the witnesses think the criteria for funding should be relaxed and how will local authorities be funded for outdoor recreation staff on a full-time basis in the future? The witnesses somewhat covered that one but community groups need more of a say in funding applications for local communities. How do the witnesses plan on allowing communities to engage on outdoor recreation projects? If a project is unsuccessful, is there going to be an appeals process set up? Sometimes it is frustrating when a project does not receive funding and I think it is important the local authorities and communities be in a position to appeal.

As somebody who came from an area in Meath with CLÁR funding, we made very good use of it as well as the town and village funding. Those things have worked out well on the bigger scale of things.