COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 14, 2024

QUESTION NO.49(i)

QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons

To ask the Chief Executive For a report into the 300K Have your say by year 2019 – 2024 and LEA as to what funds where not spent in each LEA and what happened to these funds?

REPLY:

€300K Have Your Say was a participatory budgeting initiative that ran in each Local Electoral Area (LEA) in South Dublin County from 2017 to its completion in 2023. It was the first participatory budgeting initiative of its kind, both for South Dublin county Council and in Ireland. 

Following completion of the roll-out in each LEA in 2023 (note: many projects are still in delivery, as set out in the accompanying documentation), a full evaluation of the initiative was carried out by independent evaluator, Dr Rob Worrell. The findings and recommendations of this report were presented to and are accepted by the Council, including a specific recommendation related to the fact that there was no process for the re-allocation of unspent funding when a project is unable to go ahead and that this should be addressed in any future iteration of participatory budgeting. 

At the  Organisation Procedures and Finance Committee meeting in September 2024, it was agreed that a new Steering Group would be established to examine the recommendations from this evaluation report and consider how best to progress their implementation. The formation of this Steering Group is underway.