Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Will the Deputy Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government come to the House to discuss the issue of alignment of local development companies, LDCs? The Minister likes to attend the House and he often attends for lengthy periods but there is a great deal of disappointment and frustration about the manner in which the alignment process has unfolded, especially in respect of documentation and letters that have issued to local authorities, in the first instance, that are then made available to the LDC network. An alignment working group was set up and that brought together representatives of the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, the City and County Managers Association, Pobal and the Department to work through proposals to effect the process but, unfortunately, the group has not met since last September.

The ILDN believes the release of the documentation to front-runner local authorities and then to all other local authorities by the Department has undermined the credibility of the working group process. There is a great deal of confusion about the delivery mechanisms and the working and contractual arrangements between local community development committees, LCDCs, and LDCs. The Minister should come to the House to clarify issues relating to the tendering process, the delivery of programmes, the need to provide Leader programmes and traditional funding for a number of LDCs, the proposal that LCDCs will become local action groups in the context of the Leader programme and the implications of this decision for relevant LDCs and the management of communications, for example, with networks such as the ILDN, which is a key partner in the alignment process. I have received correspondence from local groups such as Breffni Integrated Limited and Monaghan Integrated Development and there is a great deal of concern about what the future holds for these groups, how they will navigate their way through the next funding period and what that will mean for the work they do in their communities, for example, with businesses and disadvantaged young people. This is an important debate the House should have and it would give us an opportunity to discuss these important outstanding issues.