Departmental Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

I wish the Minister luck in those negotiations and discussions ahead of budget 2027. Those of us who represent CLÁR areas and rural areas will be watching. The addition of those townlands - Glenwilliam, Tallow, Lismore and other areas the Minister mentioned - is really welcome and will facilitate groups on the ground there accessing funding. Not every area, unfortunately, can be included in CLÁR funding, but that is something we might revisit and have a discussion about at some stage. I know a threshold or a line has to be drawn somewhere, but I note that in the Comeragh area of County Waterford - the Portlaw-Kilmacthomas local electoral area - there were no new areas designated for CLÁR funding. That could be a blessing in disguise in some ways because the metric is not there to qualify but, on the other hand, it means that those community groups that are facing some of the same challenges do not qualify. It is something that maybe we can come back to and have a look at some time in the future and maybe keep that expansion going, maybe not year on year but over time, in order that more and more areas would begin to qualify.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14