Longford community groups save Government a staggering €61.6 million per year

County Longford Public Participation Network (PPN) held their first municipal district plenary meetings last week in Granard, Ballymahon and Longford.

Members had requested an update from their Coordinator, Siobhán Cronogue on why there was no increase in the PPN Budget.

Ms Cronogue said she was at a loss and was as disappointed and frustrated as the PPN Secretariat (Board) and the wider membership.

She stated this year was the 10th year anniversary since PPN’s were written into legislation (Local Government Reform Act 2014).

She said the National PPN Workers Network and the National PPN Secretariat Network on behalf of the full membership lobby the Department of Rural & Community Development (DRCD) every year for adequate resources.

She told the members that DRCD had announced at one of the workers meetings last year that PPN’s would be happy with their increase, so it was a shock to everyone when Budget 2024 was announced.

Ms Cronogue went on to say that in ten years PPNs were only given one increase of €10,000 in the Budget.

She pointed out that a decade ago County Longford PPN had 93 community groups registered whereas now there are 570, a Disability Network, an Intercultural Forum and over 40 PPN Reps sitting on various decision-making committees yet there is still only one full time worker and a one year temporary support worker.

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Members expressed their frustration at how much voluntary time, effort and significant contributions they make to their communities and how they wanted PPNs to be better staffed and funded.

Ms Cronogue agreed and stated that when she runs a report on the PPN database she can see that the 570 community groups are made up of 79,000 individual volunteers as most volunteers are members of more than one group. She said if you were to be extremely modest and say that each group volunteer gives one hour each week (52 weeks per year) @ minimum wage of €15 it amounts to €61,620,000. “This is a staggering amount that county Longford community groups save the Government per year.”

Other issues were discussed such as assigning the correct Grade to staff in line with the responsibility and workload of their positions.

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The Budget update concluded and true to form group representatives got back to work.

Attendees reviewed their Community Wellbeing Vision Statements with most agreeing the content was as relevant as when they developed them in 2018. Some minor updates were agreed.

Members then worked on their Election Mandates 2024 by forming groups and discussing what they wanted election candidates to deliver over the next five years under six headings; Participation, Local Government and Good Governance, Work, Economy & Resources, Health (physical & mental), Values, Culture and Meaning, Social and Community Development and Environment and Sustainability. Tourism was raised in all three Municipal District under the headings listed.

Dr Harriet Emerson facilitated all three sessions and applauded the energy and engagement of members present.

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Once the information has been correlated the Election Mandates will be circulated to all member groups and at the members request each election candidate will be presented with their relevant Municipal District Mandate and asked if they sign up to deliver the contents. The names of the running candidates who agree, will be circulated to the full membership and it will be available on the PPN Website.

County Longford PPN look forward to hosting the Midland Regional PPN meeting in the Longford Arms Hotel this evening, Wednesday April 17. PPN Secretariat members and staff will share best practices and discuss regional matters.

If you are not already a member of County Longford PPN or you are interested in starting a group please contact Siobhán scronogue@longfordcoco.ie or Breda, bgreaves@longfordcoco.ie