Lismore’s First Responders group got no joy – and no money – from the town council when the issue of an allocation to them came before the councillor’s monthly meeting on Monday night.

Cllr Orla Russell had proposed at the previous meeting that they be given a donation and that was agreed, however at their meeting this week she was told by Cllr Davy Whelan that it was no longer clear whether they could make such allocations to third parties and that it needed to be legally clarified.

A disappointed Cllr Russell said the group need training and equipment. She’d wanted to give them €1,000 from the town council coffers. Cllr Bernard Leddy agreed however that they needed to legally clarify first whether or not they could give the money and a decision was postponed pending clarification.

It means Mayor Julie Lander’s who has had an on-going request before the town council to allocate funding to the Tidy Towns group to help them purchase ‘pooper-scooper’ units for the town must also wait to see if they can be given a donation.