Access to funding restored to Mayo authority after greenway fiasco
Mayo TD Alan Dillon has tonight received confirmation from the Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys that the Department of Rural and Community Development is satisfied with Mayo County Council's level of assurance provided through its enhanced procedures and reviews in response to recent audit and inspection findings relating to the greenway projects in Louisburgh and Achill.
Confirming this news he said: “The Secretary General of the Department of Community and Rural Development, Mary Hurley, will be issuing a letter tomorrow (Tuesday) to the chief executive of Mayo County Council Kevin Kelly informing the council that they are now eligible for 2022 funding subject to enhanced checks.
“Many hard-working community organisations who submitted grant applications and the Mayo electorate were disappointed and felt let down to see no funding been allocated through a range of schemes and projects in recent months.
"Thankfully the council has responded and now in a position to receive departmental funding across all its funding schemes.
“I’ve spoken to Minister Humphreys regularly on this issue to find a pathway and thankfully for Mayo County Council, they have undertaken several changes to their processes and procedures in order to regain access to grant funding and have satisfied the terms set by the Department of Rural and Community Development.“
The Mayo TD added: “As a member of public account committee, I completely understand the need for strict controls and governance of public monies.
"I’m relieved the council have engaged positively with the Department of Rural and Community Development to implement these necessary measures following this recent funding fiasco."
Among the funding to come on stream now was the Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) monies withheld from several communities across the county.
Welcoming the announcement, Deputy Michael Ring stated: “As people are aware, for the past twelve to eighteen months, applications for funding by Mayo County Council to the Department of Rural and Community Development have not been considered for funding following audit of some of the projects that Mayo County Council had obtained funding for from the department.
"For now, Mayo County Council will be able to apply for projects but they will be subject to further enhanced checks.
“It was extremely disappointing what happened over the past 18 months with Mayo County Council when funding had been given to them.
"Misinformation was provided to the department stating that some of the projects had been completed when they had not even been started and other projects where funding was drawn down and projects had been started but were no way near completion.
“Hopefully, going forward, Mayo County Council will ensure that every application for funding is ready to spend this funding should their application be successful and not have a situation where funding is granted and they are not able to use it."