Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Funding was announced for the LEADER programme two weeks ago. I welcome that this funding has been put in place. County Galway received an allocation of €9 million for the next five years and this process has shown the funding we are getting per head of population is at the lower end of the scale. We are getting €46.63 per person for the next five years. A comparative analysis with other counties, for example, the other four counties in Connacht and the average funding they are going to get, shows that if County Galway's allocation was brought up to that average, we would be entitled to not €9 million but €18 million.

I assure the Ministers that I am not looking for €18 million today. We are, though, being put at the lower end of the scale. I do not know for what reason. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is present. He knows we have the same problem with local government funding. It seems as if County Galway is being penalised for some reason. I do not know whether it may have been because we did not join the city and county councils together or whatever the underlying reason might be, but County Galway is getting the lower end of the scale of funding allocation. For instance, Cork, the county of the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, is getting an additional €3 million in LEADER funding this year. This situation cannot continue in a county that is so diverse and has as many different regions and challenges as Galway. The county is part of the North and West Regional Assembly area, which has been designated by the EU as a lagging region and one that needs positive discrimination in investment to try to bring the amount allocatedper capitaup to allow the country to have balanced development.

The argument here is not about the amount of the reduction; it is about the basis on which we are being funded and how much we are getting per capitacompared to everybody else. I do not begrudge Sligo, Roscommon, Mayo or Leitrim, or any other county, what it is getting but when one sees what they are getting compared to what we are getting, there are many questions to be asked. I would like to see at some stage the metrics by which this funding is being allocated on a county-wide basis. It is something that many people in Galway are uneasy about. The trend is continuing. Following on from Galway County Council having one of the lowest funding allocations, we have this. I would appreciate a response.

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