Deputy McDonald spends day meeting local groups
SINN Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald spent a day in the Garden County last week, meeting with a number of local groups and organisations.
The party’s president began her day in Bray and, joined by party members, gradually worked her way down the east coast to Arklow before ending her visit with a packed public meeting on Monday night.
Deputy John Brady described the visit by his party leader as ‘very successful’.
‘We were delighted to welcome Mary Lou to the Garden County on Monday. It was a very successful visit and she met with many groups across the county,’ said the Bray TD.
‘We started off by dropping into the National Learning Network in Bray and then we went to visit the fantastic Lakers Social & Recreational Club in their new temporary accommodation in the old St Andrew’s school. We then went Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald visiting Lakers at their temporary premises in the old St Andrew’s School: (from left) Pearse Cahill, Cllr Mary McDonald, Cllr Dermot O’Brien, Daniel Ryan, Grace McManus, Rebecha McAulay, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, Stuart Brierton, Deputy John Brady, Cllr Nicola Lawless, Muireann Dalton and Aidan Kinsella.
to Greystones to meet with the staff in the Greystones Family Resource Centre.
‘We then popped in to say hello to everyone in Wicklow Travellers Group and Shuttle knit in Wicklow town to see the ongoing excellent work that they are engaged in,’ he said.
From there, the group travelled to Arklow to meet with the local Tidy Towns group and members of the ARROW group, which is campaigning to keep access to north beach open. After that, Deputy McDonald and her group met with the General Secretary of Mandate
Trade Union, John Douglas, and shop stewards from across the county.
‘We finished off a hugely successful day with a packed public meeting in Wicklow town,’ said Deputy Brady, who thanked all the groups for participating in a very successful day. SPORT Ireland has announced more than €200,000 in funding for County Wicklow Local Sports Partnership in 2019.
The funding, which represents an increase on last year, includes a national investment of €12.845m in the core activity of National Governing Bodies for Sport (NGBs), €8.46m in NGB High Performance Programmes, €820,000 in high performance funding for the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Paralympics Ireland, and €7.29 million in the work of the Local Sports Partnerships (LSPs).
In total, Wicklow LSP has been allocated €207,635, which is broken down into €199,235 in core funding and €8,400 for women in sports programmes.
Nationally, funding for the International Carding Scheme has increased to €1.934 million this year and will be awarded as a two-year scheme. This means that athletes who are awarded carding now will be funded until December 2020 to allow them to focus on Olympic and Paralympic qualification.
Under the NGB of Athletics Ireland, Fionnula McCormack has been awarded €20,000 under this scheme.