Joy for some Limerick communites as €1.4m in Leader funding is confirmed

NINE communities in West Limerick are celebrating their success in bagging Leader funding totalling €1.4m for their various community facility projects.

Adare and Ardagh in particular are jubilant,  having been awarded €500,000 and €357,000 respectively for their sports facility projects.

But in two communities  Patrickswell  and Killeedy, there is bitter disappointment that their proposals for resource centres  have been rejected.  The rejection may put Patrickswell’s project in doubt but Killeedy is determined to fire ahead.

Joe Kelleher, secretary of the Kantoher Development Group, which promoted the Ashford project said: “Our intention is still to do what we set out to do. We thought we had a good chance. We felt it ticked all the boxes of what Leader were looking for. We are still going ahead with the project. We may have to scale it back or we may be able to do it more incrementally.”

They plan to look at other funding sources, Mr Kelleher said, and the €30,000 already raised was an incentive to keep going.  

Meanwhile, a further five projects have been approved in principle but placed on a waiting list because there is no more money left in the community facilities and services pot to fund them. The projects left in limbo include  a resource centre for Kildimo €439,000; the  refurbishment of  the hall in Broadford €250,000; improvements to the Desmond Complex €91,000 and to the Community Sports Complex €109,00  in Newcastle West and energy upgrading in the Glórach Theatre, Abbeyfeale €53,000.  

Now the Local Community Development Committee on behalf of West Limerick Resources, intends to apply for immediate, additional funding of at least €1m.

 “We are the only partnership company in the country with a waiting list,” Shay Riordan, the manager of West Limerick Resources said this week.

However, he said, he was unable to comment at this point in time about any project, whether approved with funding, approved without funding or rejected. The letters only went out to the community organisations concerned this week, he explained.

“We will be engaging with all the promoters,” he stressed. 

The single biggest winner, the Adare Recreation and Community Complex, plans to build a playing pavilion at Manor Fields. Meanwhile, Ardagh  District Recreational and Sporting Company also scored a hit  for their astro-turf multi-purpose facility. Other winners were Foynes Community Centre €28,000; Raheenagh Hall, €13,000; Cappagh Community Hall, €22,000; Mountcollins Community Centre, €20,000;  Rathkeale Youth Space, €62,000 and Kilcornan Community Council €52,000. The Butterfly Club got €12,000 for a sensory room.