The Mayor of South Dublin County, Cllr Peter Kavanagh, has chosen the Rathfarnham – Templeogue local electoral area for the next ‘€300K – Have Your Say’ initiative at a Council meeting on Monday 14 February 2022. Rathfarnham – Templeogue was chosen by the Mayor by drawing its name at random from a hat. The initiative will be carried out in the area in the coming months.
€300k Have Your Say is a participatory budgeting initiative that has been run by South Dublin County Council since 2017. €300k Have Your Say provides residents with the opportunity to develop project ideas for their local area and then vote on shortlisted proposals to fund winning projects up to the value of €300,000.
Participatory budgeting is an innovative democratic process that began in Brazil in 1989 which facilitates citizens in a local community to decide how to spend a portion of a public budget in their area. It gives people direct power to determine spending priorities and to improve their community. South Dublin County Council were the first local authority in the country to introduce participatory budgeting to their area when the Council launched €300k Have Your Say in 2017.
To date, over 10,000 people have cast their vote in €300k Have Your Say to fund a project, or projects, of their choice. 700 project ideas have been submitted to the Council for consideration with 80 being put forward to the public vote and 40 being funded. Previous iterations of €300k Have Your Say has seen a new playground built in Waterstown Park, the restoration of King John’s Bridge in Griffeen Park, native apple trees planted throughout Clondalkin, a Christmas festival held in Lucan and the development of a heritage trail app.
South Dublin County Council has previously won a Chambers Ireland award in Citizen Engagement for the initiative and been shortlisted for a European Innovation in Politics award in the ‘Democracy’ category.
