Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am raising this issue on behalf of concerned organisations and communities in Cork. A letter co-signed by the chairs of Cork local community development committees, LCDCs, all three of them Fine Gael councillors, calls for a fairer distribution of funding. Cork County Council's administrative area is divided into three LCDCs and the funding allocation need to reflect that. The county-based system in the previous programmes has resulted in under-resourcing of Cork communities. In figures provided by the Fine Gael councillors, under the 2014 to 2022 allocations, County Cork, with a population of almost 400,000, received just under €40 million, while Waterford, with a population of 67,000, received €7.5 million and Roscommon, with a population of 64,000, received almost €9 million. Proportionately, Waterford receives three times as much as Cork and Roscommon almost four times as much. The funding distribution system for the new LEADER programme drastically needs reform and I ask the Minister to reconsider the distribution method.

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