This article is from page 17 of the 2011-03-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
THE Clare Volunteer Centre is in desperate need of funding in order to keep the organisation opening and operating to full capacity.
According to information revealed at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the Clare centre receives the lowest funding of any volunteers centre in the country.
“Clare is the lowest funded in Ireland and has a very small funding allocation compared to other counties,” said Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG).
“We have a history of getting extraordinary results for a much smaller sum of money in Clare. We are getting treated very badly by central government compared to other counties.”
These sentiments were echoes by Cllr PJ Ryan (Ind), who is also involved in the centre.
“This would be a serious loss to Clare if we would lose this centre. They do incredible work and we get great value for every bit of money spent on the centre,” Cllr Ryan added.
“We need to take action on this and not allow for this facility to be lost to us because of a lack of money. Volunteers do great work and we need to support everything that they do especially at this time of economic difficulty.”
Meanwhile, Clare County Council will write to the Department of Agriculture asking them not to renege on a promise to provide information points at marts for farmers. This follows to motion put forward at yesterday’s meeting by Cllr Michael Hillery (FF), who said it was the least that could be done following the closure of the departments facility in Clare last year.
“There are more than 5,000 herd owners in Clare. The Minister of Agriculture need to set up facilities at the various marts around Clare so that farmers can get the information they need,” he said.