A notice of motion by Michelle Mulherin calling on the Ballina electoral area committee to request the Minister for Environment and the Minister for Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to obtain a derogation for Ballina and other towns in the BMW region from the EU in order for them to obtain structural funds under the Leader programme caused plenty of debate at the committee meeting this week. The motion was eventually passed when it was seconded by her Fine Gael party colleague Jarlath Munnelly.
Cllr Mulherin told the meeting that €847,000 had been spent previously on projects in Ballina through leader funding and that under the current funding there would be almost €2 million worth of funding that could not be given to projects in Ballina because of the town’s hub status. She went on to say that the reason that Ballina and other towns like Castlebar would be left out of the Leader programme from now on was because of the Government decision to exclude hub towns from rural status for this funding when it was decided at European level. The Fine Gael councillor went on to tell the meeting that Ballina has the highest unemployment rate in the country and this kind of funding could and should be allowed to be spent in the town.
Cllr Mulherin was cut off in mid speech by committee chairman Eddie Staunton who told her: “This is not a motion, this is a speech, I won’t have it while I’m the chairman.” Cllr Mulherin rebutted: “I’m only trying to give the background on the motion.” Her own party colleague Seamus Weir interjected that this motion and debate really belonged at a full council meeting “because this is something that six of us here can’t really do anything about”.
Fianna Fáil councillor Johnny O’Malley got involved in the debate saying: “This is a story that’s a year old at this time. Do you want us to withdraw from hub status so we can get €2 million of Leader funding, if we didn’t have hub status I don’t think we would have got the N26 and other projects in the town. Also it’s not that €2 million will be lost to the region, the money is still going to be spent in the area in places like Ardagah and here in Moygownagh [the meeting was held in the new community centre in the village], so it’s not like the money won’t be spend in this area.” Fellow Fianna Fáil councillor Annie May Reape backed her party colleagues’ stance and that of Cllr Weir, saying “This really is not the place to be having this debate” and it should be held at a full council meeting.
