Wicklow TD meets Blessington resident calling for community garden and allotment funding

Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore met with Chairperson of Community Gardens Ireland, Blessington resident Dónal McCormack at Leinster House to discuss the need for improved legislation to protect and promote community growing in Ireland.

Community Gardens Ireland recently published their report Lets Get Growing which highlighted the poor provision of community growing spaces in Ireland compared to other EU countries and the UK. The group is now calling for the Government to commit and support the doubling of the number of community growing spaces in Ireland by 2025.

Deputy Whitmore says, “it was great to meet Dónal, Chairperson of Community Gardens Ireland and founder of Blessington Allotments. Dónal and his team have done incredible work to get the movement off the ground in Wicklow and to advocate for better investment from government to make sure every community has access to growing spaces.

“The benefits of such spaces are far reaching from the improved wellbeing they can have on a person’s mental health, to the positive impact that growing food locally can have on the environment and biodiversity. In Blessington you can see just how important even the limited space Blessington Allotments currently has, is for locals since Dónal and his team set it up a number of years ago. I was also delighted to receive some fresh produce from the garden including a strawberry plant!

“While it remains to be seen whether funding will be provided as a result of this year’s budget, I’m proud to say that the Social Democrats were the only party to include funding for local authorities to purchase land for community growing purposes, ensuring more permanent locations to be set up for community gardens and allotments.

“Wicklow County Council is one of eight local authorities in Ireland that do not provide any allotments or community gardens. At a time when we are asking individuals and communities throughout Ireland to play a bigger role in climate action, we need to ensure that communities are supported from all levels to achieve this. The provision of spaces for communities and individuals to grow produce is a very basic and achievable way of encouraging local climate action.”

“I fully support Community Gardens Ireland in the work they are doing to highlight the benefits of community growing spaces and the real need to increase the number of them being provided. I hope the Minister for Heritage will respond to this need in Wicklow and across the country as he manages funding from Budget 2023” concludes Whitmore.