A packed public meeting in Killorglin on Thursday night last called on the Kerry County Councillors present to back their words of support for the retention of Partnerships with deeds and to vote in favour of a motion backing Partnerships at the next council meeting.
The meeting in Killorglin was organised by the Iveragh Community Groups against Alignment who are mounting a strong campaign to have proposals by Minister Phil Hogan that would effectively see the closure of Partnership groups such as South Kerry Development Partnership throughout the country. Many of the Councillors present indicated that they were precluded from voting in favour of two such motions previously put down by Cllr. Johnny Healy Rae due to conflict of issue matters. However Dr. Brendan O’Keeffe from the Geography Department of Mary Immaculate College pointed out that such issues did not pose any issue for councillors in other parts of the country who voted unanimously in favour of motions supporting the retention of Partnerships.
Amongst the political representatives who attended the meeting were Munster MEP Phil Prendergast, Deputies Arthur Spring, Tom Fleming and Michael Healy Rae and Senator Marie Moloney while apologies were received from MEP Sean Kelly and Fine Gael Deputy Brendan Griffin who cited the requirement for them to attend other engagements for their non attendance. Among the Kerry County Councillors present were Michael Cahill, Patrick Connor-Scarteen, Johnny Healy-Rae, Brendan Cronin, Matt Griffin, Michael O’Shea, Sean Counihan, Paul O’Donoghue, Torieasa Ferris and P.J Donovan. Killarney Town Councillor Donal O’Grady was also present at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly said that his is totally opposed to the proposals to bring the Rural Development Programme under the County Councils as is proposed in the Alignment initiative. He highlighted the support and assistance he received from both SKDP and NEKD with his entrepreneur programmes. He said that people have lost enough power over the future of Ireland and this was an attempt to take further power out of the hands of the people.
Dr. Brendan O’Keeffe of Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, outlined to the meeting how the current proposals are totally at odds with current European Policy on rural development and the delivery of funding to rural communities. He highlighted that the level of bureaucracy in Ireland is on par with Portugal and Greece and these proposals would make the situation even worse. This is also very much at odds with the rest of Europe which is trying to strengthen the role of local democracy not end it. Dr. O’Keeffe added that the current proposals take no account of the facts that independent studies have clearly shown that the Irish model of bottom up community development is the most effective delivery model and rather than dismantling it as is currently proposed, it should be further strengthened to effectively deliver the services to where they are needed.
SKDP CEO Noel Spillane pointed out that much of the information around the partnerships that is being put in the public domain at present is false given that there is no duplication of services being provided between the Partnerships and the councils. He also pointed out that the Boards of the Partnerships are in fact strongly democratic given their makeup of community representatives, elected representatives, agencies and social partners and that all partnerships are fully open and accountable for the work they do and the spending they undertake. Furthermore, he pointed out that the partnerships are not opposed to the introduction of the Socio Economic Committees as suggested in the proposals rather they are opposed to the functions being allocated to these committees that would see them take over responsibility for the implementation of the Rural Development (Leader) Programme.
Many voices from the floor strongly supported the partnerships in their current format and made it very clear to all the politicians present that they wanted the message to be taken back loud and clear to Government and in particular Minister Hogan that they totally opposed his current proposals and are calling on him to change them immediately. They also indicated that they will start a campaign to highlight the issue to both local and national media as well as to political representatives so that their voices and opposition to these proposals are clearly heard.
FURTHER INFORMATION
To view the South Kerry Development Partnership Board’s Position on Alignment please click on the following link SKDP Board Position on Alignment
To read the complete submission from the Irish Local Development Network to Minister Hogan on the Alignment Proposal please click on the following link Irish Local Development Network Submission
To view presentation to meeting from Dr. Brendan O’Keeffe of Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick please click on the following link Killorglin Public Meeting Dr Brendan O’Keeffe Presentation May 2nd
To view presentation to meeting from SKDP CEO Noel Spillane please click on the following link Killorglin Public Meeting Noel Spillane CEO Presentation 02nd May
