Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 37: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the amount of funding provided by his Department to rural tourism in the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14264/10]

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that primary responsibility for tourism matters rests with my colleague, Ms Mary Hanafin, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism. However, my Department does support certain complementary actions in the area of rural recreation. For example, my Department has lead responsibility for implementing the National Countryside Recreation Strategy and, in this regard, the following funding has been provided over the last 3 years:

In 2010, funding of €4.3m is being provided to continue to support a range of rural recreation activities. In addition, under the previous LEADER Programmes, funding of over €2.76m was provided by the locally-based LEADER Groups under the Rural Tourism measure between January 2007 and March 2008. Under the new round of LEADER funding, which commenced in late 2009, it is anticipated that support of up to €45.4m over the lifetime of the Rural Development Programme will be available through the 'Encouragement of Tourism Activities' measure.