‘Projects like this would crop up everywhere’: Local minister backs novel suggestion for community funding scheme in Leitrim

 The news that Ballinamore’s Island Theatre would receive Community Services Programme (CSP) funding for 2026 was the “final part of a jigsaw that started in 2016,” said Tom Byrne, Theatre Director, who spoke at the announcement in Ballinamore yesterday.

The Island Theatre saw a huge renovation in 2022 that included the addition of new dressing rooms, tiered seating, a cinema screen and a revamp of the outside of the building.

The work was carried out with around €600,000 in funds raised by the community. Byrne praised the work of the Island Theatre’s committee for their fundraising efforts during that project, highlighting the work of Dominic Cummisky.

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Meanwhile, he took the chance to suggest that a new approach for community-led funding of local projects is needed.

“What I would like to say is that I think there is a gap in funding in most of these projects, whereby people who promote the projects and develop the projects have to go and try and raise funds.”

He highlighted the difficulty of local organisations that are forced to begin the process of projects before going to look for grants from the government or for campaigning in the community for funds.

“I think we need to think of better ways of doing this,” he said, suggesting that there may be a mechanism through the credit union that could make it easier for projects to get funding.

“I've been involved myself, as a board member for well over 40 years, here in Ballinamore … I do know the amount of money that's tied up, literally in shares, sitting there in the commons. I think there is a way to channel that money into projects like this.”

“In other words, a community comes together, it decides it's going to do a project, like do up the hall or whatever it's going to be, and they're going to cost it and budget for it and do everything like that, and then there has to be a means of credit unions getting involved in financing those.”

The credit union had the funds to provide a loan for the project but was not in a position to do so, according to Byrne.

“I think that there needs to be some way that shares are a very small percentage of shares in credit unions. So if we were to take, let's say, 1% of credit union shares each year, projects like this would crop up everywhere because it's a self-funded mechanism by the community,” said Byrne.

The renovation of the hall was also funded through a loan from Clann Credo, a national community loan finance provider.

“It's an interesting proposal,” said Deputy Frank Feighan, who was recently appointed as junior minister for procurement.

“The credit unions are there, and they have serious amounts of money that's on deposit, and maybe if they can find some mechanism that helps the community, the 1% is something I didn't hear before, but it certainly is a way of trying to make the credit unions much more amenable. So I would certainly support something like that,” he said when asked what he thought of the proposal after the event.

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Minister Feighan added that he would not have a problem exploring the possibilities in his department, though there would need to be checks and balances in place.

The Island Theatre is one of 426 organisations that the CSP programme will support next year. The support is aimed at covering part of the salaries of two staff members and one managerial position within an organisation, with the remainder being made up by the organisation itself.

Previously, the Island Theatre met the criteria for the programme, but insufficient funding in the programme meant it could not be included.