Longford Community Employment schemes in need of greater financial clout

The call was one which was led by Cathaoirleach of Longford County Council Cllr Micheal Carrigy and unanimously endorsed by elected members at a recent meeting of the local authority.

Cllr Carrigy urged Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty’s department to restore a Tools and Materials budget from €12 to €20 as the most opportune way of going about it.

“There was a value for money report done there a number of years ago on what the net return is for every euro paid out on these schemes and the average is €3 in most counties but in Longford it’s over €4 so there is a huge benefit to the county of Longford with this scheme and they do a huge amount of work for Tidy Towns, villages, graveyards, active agegroups etc,” he said.

The Fine Gael general election candidate said the appeal was one which followed on from a meeting a number of councillors held in Granard.

“We (elected members) are putting forward a proposal that the council would ask the Department to increasing the cut that was made a number of years ago from €20 down to €12,” he said.

“It’s important we support this as a local authority to show the support we have for the various schemes throughout the county.”

He was supported by party colleague, Cllr Gerard Farrell who claimed he had submitted an almost “word for word” motion on the same topic two years previously.

“It was a huge cut from €20 to €12 and I think it’s now time we looked at increasing that,” he told the meeting.

“The facts are there as the return on investment on it to a local economy are there in black and white and is something we should be fighting for within this county.”