Last month, at the invitation of Senator Michael Carrigy, the staff of Public Participation Networks from across the country attended Leinster House to speak on the growth of the PPNs across Ireland in their ten years in existence.
When registrations began, in 2016, PPNs had 11,500 community groups. This has almost doubled to over 22,000 groups and in Cavan PPN alone, groups have expanded since the start of this year alone from 356 groups to 450.
However, as the remit of staff and volunteers expands to helping network, train and provide a voice for these groups, the resources to do so have not, with only a 10,000 euro increase in the budget over that ten year period.
PPN staff met with Public Representatives from across the country to discuss this and the value of PPNs in society. TDs Brendan Smyth, Pauline Tully and Matt Carthy spoke in support of PPNs as integral to the fabric of communities in Ireland and also noted the need for extra investment in them to assist and grow communities.
TD Brendan Smyth commented on the value PPNs bring to the decision making tables with community knowledge, while TD Matt Carthy spoke on the growing need for community voices to enhance both national and local voices with a common sense and local perspective. Coordinator at Cavan Public Participation, Daniel Downey says investment in the service to continue the work they do across Cavan.
