Not a Lotto for Meath in grants payout

Meath's miserable placing at the bottom of a table of counties in receipt of National Lottery funding has been blamed on community and sporting organisations which failed to make applications for grants. For the second year in a row, the county scored lowest in the share-out of funds, getting just €278,670 from a grand total of €41.3 million, representing a take of just €1.51 per head of population in the county. Despite the huge increase in population in recent years, other counties outstripped it when it came to getting lottery funds. The lottery was set up in March 1987 and has so far distributed more than €3.6 billion to support initiatives in sport and recreation, health and welfare, national heritage and the arts, and the Irish language. Organisations in counties like Sligo, Waterford, Longford and Mayo (the Taoiseach's constituency) were able to draw heavy funding from the lottery - ranging from €1,527,214 or €23.35 per head in Sligo, to €1,833,858 or €14.03 per head in Mayo. Meath came last in the race for funds, coming seven places below its neighbouring county, Louth. Meath County Council said this week that it had no control over the allocation of lottery funds. A spokesperson said that the funds are handled initially by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and then distributed through the various government departments. A spokesperson said that the money was generally given to community groups which had to make application for the funds.