Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. The entire Duhallow region of County Cork is within the CLÁR region. I refer to the classification of CLÁR. Not one project was funded in my region although there were four put forward by the local authority. West Cork is not in my constituency but it should be noted that large tracts of it are in the CLÁR region. A huge part of the landmass of County Cork is in the CLÁR region. Three projects were funded.

The Minister of State said that it is not possible, unfortunately, to fund all measures. Is there any more CLÁR funding to be announced in 2019? There is talk locally that there is more money to become available under the programme. From the Minister of State's initial statement, it looks like there will be no further funding. Does Minister of State accept my point that the Department, in its communication with the local authority, clearly indicated that if it applied in respect of 15 projects, it would be successful. The local authority worked very hard on these projects. It worked with the communities and a lot of time and effort was put in to make sure the projects would be right. Some projects were burnt in the 2018 application round. Did the Department give a commitment that if there were 15 projects submitted by the county council, they would be funded? Is further funding to be made available under the CLÁR programme in 2019? Does the Minister of State accept that Cork county should be treated differently because of its landmass? The Minister of State referred to the size of his county, County Galway. Much of the landmass of County Cork is in the CLÁR region. I am referring in particular to the Duhallow region, where not one of the four projects in respect of which an application was made received funding in the last round.

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