Questions still remain over the recent revelation that Mayo County Council had to hand back €1.1 million in capital funding, given that it has now emerged the county has received no funding through the recently announced Rural Regeneration Development Fund.
According to Robeen based councillor Patsy O'Brien, Mayo was one of just six counties that received none of the €21.7million in funding that was announced by Minister Heather Humphries last week.
Cllr O'Brien stated this week: "Mayo County Council applied through the Rural Regeneration Development Fund for five or six projects across the county but not one penny was allocated to Mayo. Twenty other counties across the island have received funding for 27 projects. I will be asking questions of the officials of Mayo County Council at the special meeting which has been set down at the end of February to discuss the action plan that council management has in place to ensure the authority does not have to hand back money which was allocated from government for projects in Mayo which will not be completed.
"I need to know if the audit that was conducted and resulted in the money being handed back and the penalties which ensued, resulted in Mayo not getting a penny from the Rural Regeneration Development Fund.
"I also want to know if the council's credibility, as a result of the audit, has been damaged and also will we be deprived of further funding if we make applications for different projects in the county through Government departments. I had attempted to ask these questions at last Monday's council meeting but unfortunately got no answer from council management."
