Fine Gael Cork South Central Senator Jerry Buttimer has called on Fianna Fáil Deputy, Michael McGrath, to substantiate his claim that the Sports Capital Grant is to be re-opened when the dogs in the street know that is patently untrue.
“Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath has been delivering flyers in the constituency claiming that the Sports Capital Grant programme is to be re-opened for clubs and organisations in need of funding.
“In black and white, the Government Deputy claims that Minister Hanafin ‘has indicated that an announcement on the future of the grant scheme would be made shortly and that the scheme would be re-opened’.
“The fact is, however, that there is no money in the pot, thanks to Fianna Fáil’s spectacular mismanagement of the economy, a fact confirmed to me in the Seanad, in response to an adjournment debate, by Minister Mary White who said that, ‘given the current budgetary situation…no date has been set for the next round of the programme’.
“McGrath’s desperate attempt to include a good news story in his leaflet to constituents through deception, is a blatant attempt to curry favour with an increasingly disillusioned public.”