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Ó Cuaig says Ó Cuív is "Dictator" Minister "personally responsible for slashing Udarás funds"
Independent County Councillor, and re-elected independent member of the Board of Údarás na Gaeltachta, Seosamh
Ó Cuaig, has strongly criticised the Minister for Gaeltacht, Éamon Ó Cuív, TD, for the manner in which he has
brought about the politicisation of the Údarás Board, thus creating a body "which wiII flot oppose the ongoing cuts in
Údarás funding being carried out by the Miníster".
Ó Cuaig points out that he is the only elected member of the Údargs Board who is not a member of the Govemment parties, as of the other five members, four are members of Fianna Fáil and the other is a member of the Progressive Democrats.
"The government parties have tightened their grip on the Údarás, but this does not mean that I will be meekly accepting the policies dictated by Messrs Ó Cuív and McDowell. The fact is I am now the only elected opposition within the Galway Gaeltacht. However, this is an opposition with considerable comrnunity support. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who voted for me and salute the group of 85 who actively canvassed on my behaif.
This backing for my independent candidature shows I arn a genuine community candidate and I intend to defend the Gaeltacht community from any PD/Fianna Fáil onslaught."
Seosamh Ó Cuaig was especially critical of what he termed "the absurdity", where half of those elected to the Údás
board for the Galway Gaeltacht came from predominantly English-speaking areas. "Éamonn Ó Cuív is directly responsible
for this situation. It is clearly part of his strategy to tighten the Coalition's grip on the Údarás even though it will seriously
damage the Gaeltacht itself. It shows that despite ail his talk of protecting the Gaeltacht and the Irish language his interests are
selfish, party political ones"
Ó Cuaig has accused Minister Ó Cuív of deliberately and continuously putting state funding of Údarás operations so that his Department can use these funds directly, "thereby bypassing a democratically elected body specifically created in order to fight for jobs in the Gaeltacht and foster the strengthening of the Insh ianguage.
"€14,500,000 in real terms have been slashed by the Minister from the Údards budget in recent years", Clir ÓCuaig told Glór
Chonamara. "I asked the Minister at the last Board meeting why he had done this, and when he did not reply, I suggested to
him that his actions were as a resuit of one or more of the following reasons:
"I am not taking this lying down" said Ó Cuaig. "I am proposing a motion, which I expect other members of the Board to support, calling for the return of these funds to the body charged with developing the Gaeltacht.
"Galway City is clogged to choking point because the dynamics of inward investment there are dragging all the jobs and all the workers from miles around into the city", said Ó Cuaig.
"However, travel twenty miles west of Galway City and there stands undeniable evidence of a Connemara in continuous, serious decline. School numbers have fallen alarmingly. In my area we have six sehools, and if all the children were amalgamated into one school there stili would not be enough pupils to qualify it for a 'Walking Principal'. This decline is the same in Maam, Roundstone, Recess - all over Connemara. Fishing, horseriding, walking tours, golf - all have been hit by major drops in tourism figures, especially in North Connemara, and nothing is being done to fight it.
"Meanwhile funds that shouid go to Údarás for meaningful, worthwhile investment, that shouid serve to halt and reverse this terrible decline in the Gaeitacht, are being doled out by Minister Ó Cuív in order to enhance bis own political profile.
"This is the equivalent of the White Man in America handing out shiny beads to the Native Indians. But, let the Minister note, his actions will have repercussions, and when the Indians came over the hill at Little Big Horn, it was too late for beads!"
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