Meath Co Council should have a senior official in place to follow up on the availability of grants from the EU, a Fine Gael councillor has suggested.
Cllr Yemi Adenuga proposed the measure at the February meeting of the council. The official’s role would be to analyse Meath Co Council’s corporate and strategic plans to identify where EU funding could be used, to progress applications for such funding to deliver identified elements.
Cllr Adenuga said that they all knew that Meath Co Council was the least funded county in the country. Year on year this very point was raised. The opinion was that sometime in the future the county would be considered for more funding.
“While we await this magical turnaround from the national exchequer, we have the opportunity to tap into funding at EU level. There are a wide range of EU funding streams available with huge benefits to the county. I acknowledge that the council has availed of EU funding in the past but it had not availed of half the funding available to it”.
It was her understanding that three councils in Cork, Limerick and Donegal had a dedicated EU official and they availed of funding that they were not previously aware of.
“Meath Co Council could learn from these other councils how they funded these posts and what had worked well for them. This council should be open to availing of all possible funding from the EU. We have nothing to lose and plenty to gain”, she said.
Chief Executive Jackie Maguire said that they had somebody in that role and the council had been successful in applying for a certain level of EU grant aid and they were open to considering how they could expand on that. In some cases it was “easy enough” to make applications but in other cases the council would need partners from other State agencies. It would be something that could be considered at budget time, and they would also need sanction for such a role.
“It’s something we would not dismiss out of hand.”
