Council denies “bias” against GAA in funding allocations

“There seems to be a policy of GAA clubs getting no funding whatsoever,” claimed Cllr Tom Farrell at the July meeting of Athlone Moate Municipal District this week, during a discussion on the allocation of funding under round 2 of the council’s Festival & Events Grants Scheme.

The claim was vehemently denied by the council’s Director of Services, Barry Kehoe, who pointed out that there was “no bias against the GAA or any other organisation” in the allocation of funding, with each application being assessed on its merits.

“The budget that is available to this district under the scheme is €60,000, and all of it has been allocated,” said Mr. Kehoe, who added that €20,000 of this had been left over from Covid, with each of the two municipal districts in Westmeath receiving €10,000.

Cllr Farrell was referring to an application for €31,500 which was made by Moate All Whites GAA Club for their club centenary weekend celebrations from June 2 to 4 last. He said this event had attracted people from all over the country and from abroad to the club grounds at Hogan Park and was “a huge success” and it had been denied funding.

Cllr Vinny McCormack also spoke of the success of the centenary event and both himself and Cllr Farrell were anxious to find out what criteria is used by the council to assess funding applications.

The council documents indicated that the application was refused as it was not “an annual event”.

Having been urged by a number of members to seek out further funding streams for festivals and events across the municipal district, the Director of Services said he was “not aware” of any other funding sources that could be accessed by the local authority.

He discounted a suggestion from Cathaoirleach of the municipal district, Cllr Louise Heavin, that monies left over from the annual Christmas Lights budget in Athlone could be used to fund festivals and events. “There is no money left over from the lights, because the funding in place very often doesn’t even cover the cost of putting up the lights and we are always scraping around looking for extra funding,” said Barry Kehoe.

He also said no funding was available under the Economic Development and Business Fund, as had been suggested by Cllr Paul Hogan, nor was there any “European money available.”

Cllr Frankie Keena said some of the allocations were “so miniscule” that it would be impossible for many the proposed festivals to go ahead.

Cllr Paul Hogan suggested that the council write to the Corporate Policy Group (CPG) of the council seeking a doubling of the funding under the scheme, and he added that “even then we would only be hitting 50% of the people who have applied for funding.”

Cllr Heavin said she agreed with the sentiments expressed by Cllr Frankie Keena that it would be impossible for many of the festivals to go ahead “because the gap between what they are allocated and what it takes to stage the festival is just too wide.”

Barry Kehoe agreed that the funding was “very tight” under the scheme this year in light of the huge number of applications. “There are lots of activities taking place in every community,” he said “but the downside of all this is that there is less money to go round.”

Cllr Liam McDaniel pointed out that a number of festivals had received “two allocations” and he added that there needs to be “an element of fairness” in the way funding is allocated. “How can we go out to people and try to justify some groups getting two allocations when other groups get nothing?” he asked.

A total of 25 different funding applications were made with six events deemed to be ineligible for funding. Of the events that received funding, the maximum amount awarded was €3,000 which was awarded to two festivals, the County Fleadh in Castletown Geoghegan and the Athlone’s Féile na Sionainne from August 5 to 8 next, which had applied for funding to the tune of €10,695.

Moate Agricultural Show received €2,000 in funding, while four groups received €1,000 each, namely Athlone Christmas Market Group; Connaught Street and Environs Traders and Residents from their ‘Life Above the Shop on Connaught Street’ exhibition on August 13 next and Dún na Sí Amenity and Heritage Park in Moate which received two allocations of €1,000 each for their Spooktacular Halloween event and their Christmas Experience event.