Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is true that the documentation was not submitted by Donegal County Council. However, Donegal County Council had all the documentation to hand in the council offices. The Minister's staff never asked for it. It was never looked for. On a number of occasions the Minister's staff was in discussion with Donegal County Council and his officials did not ask for the documentation to be forwarded to them. It was all there. I submit that the reason they did not ask for it was that they did not want it. They did not want to see significant amounts of funding going to a county like Donegal. I think other factors affect funding in that county. It is very interesting to look at the counties that received the maximum amount of funding. There are correlations there, but they have nothing to do with the location of CLÁR areas.

I want to know what the Minister is going to do. Funding under measure 4 is at his discretion. That is fair enough. It is not under the discretion of the local authority. Will he confirm that a matrix of funding will be used in processing the 2018 applications in order to remove political factors from funding applications so that they are actually judged on their merits rather than on the basis of political expediency?

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