COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 12, 2023

QUESTION NO. 18

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

To ask the Chief executive for a detailed report on the Tidy Towns budget that explains why Tidy Towns funding was not allocated over the last 2 years from the 2022 TT budget ring fenced for all South Dublin TT groups only €24k from €100k was allocated and TT groups are also prohibited from applying for any other SDCC grants because the funding is there for them and voted on by Public Reps. So what happened to the missing €76k?

REPLY:

As the Tidy Towns budget is a Revenue Code, any funds left over at the end of the year cannot be carried over into the following year and the funds are redistributed in the Council’s general budget.

The Environmental Awareness Office took over the operation of the Tidy Towns Programme in January 2023, prior to this it was run by the Community Department.

The full budget was made available for 2022 applications and it was extensively advertised on social media and the Community Department set up a designated email address for groups to correspond with. However only 2 grants to the value of €24,000 were awarded.  In order to have the funding allocated and approved some groups had to complete outstanding requirements which they did not complete and as a result did not fulfil the funding requirements.

€25,000 of the Tidy Towns budget has been spent to date in 2023 on seed funding and first round grant funding to local groups and on a Tidy Towns webinar, the aim of which was to encourage and help Tidy Towns groups to make applications.  

The team will continue to work with groups over the summer to get as many applications in as possible.  

Any unused funds will then be redistributed in Q4 2023 as another round of funding.