A Donegal community is facing financial ruin and possible legal action after the Government pulled the plug on funding to renovate their town.
Pearse Doherty
The Doe Community Association/Creeslough Tidy Towns Committee has already spent €400,000 enhancing their town.
The community had applied successfully through Donegal County Council for LEADER funding for the works.
But now they have been told that a technical aspect of the tendering process has made them retrospectively ineligible for the €372,000 funding by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government.
Now Pearse Doherty TD has accused Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan of throwing the group to the wolves.
“I am utterly disgusted at the inaction of Minister Hogan on this issue and the complete disregard he has shown to this community group, who through no fault of their own are now facing the threat of legal action as well as huge financial and emotional costs,” he said.
The Sinn Fein TD has submitted Parliamentary Questions, written to the Minister and spoken to the Minister personally on a number of occasions regarding this project in the hopes that he would realise the seriousness of the situation and be open to taking steps to help resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction.
“Despite best efforts by myself, DLDC and the community group, it has become apparent that the Minister has no intention of engaging on this matter and has dismissed any potential solutions or recommendations made in an attempt to resolve the issue
“It is a complete disgrace that the Minister is attempting to absolve himself of any responsibility on this project and wash his hands of the whole affair, leaving a well intentioned community group exposed to financial ruin. The Minister’s inaction on this issue is recklessly placing the LEADER programme in jeopardy as community groups will think twice before applying for funding in future.
“Despite his best efforts, Minister Hogan will not be able to shirk his responsibilities on this issue in the long term as it is very likely that when this issue is proceeded with through the courts, monies from the Minister’s Department will ultimately be used to pick up the tab. In the meantime, lengthy, complicated and costly legal proceedings will mean that the eventual outlay will be a sum much greater than the original grant and the only winners will be the legal teams.”
Deputy Doherty added that even at this late stage, he is urging the Minister to intervene in this matter, to meet with a cross party delegation, to consider the recommendations of independent reports made available to him at considerable expense and to take action to resolve this issue immediately.