Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be here to inform the joint committee about my work areas and future plans to support the sustainable development of rural communities throughout Ireland. As committee members will appreciate, the issues concerning rural areas are many and diverse and I will oultine briefly the main areas of focus.

As committee members are aware, I have responsibility for managing the implementation of the 34 recommendations contained in the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, the CEDRA report as it has become commonly known. The recommendations take a wide-ranging and long-term view of what is required to support rural economic development in Ireland in the future. With my Government colleagues, I am committed to implementing them.

A significant amount of work is under way. I chair an interdepartmental group, comprising senior officials from all relevant Departments, which has been established as recommended by CEDRA. It is working in a co-ordinated way to support the economic development of rural areas. The nature of the CEDRA recommendations is such that they will take time to address. An initial evaluation and assignment of each recommendation has been made in line with statutory responsibilities and a multi-sectoral CEDRA work programme with specific actions is being finalised. Work is also well advanced on the establishment of a rural economic development zone, REDZ, pilot scheme. An announcement of the details of the pilot scheme is envisaged in the coming weeks.

The pilot scheme will be integrated with the preparation of the local economic and community plans by local authorities, to maximise the economic and community benefits of the REDZs.

One of the recommendations contained in the CEDRA report relates to the establishment of a rural innovation and development fund, for which I have received an allocation of €1 million in the 2015 budget through the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine Vote. I am examining a number of options on how this fund can be most effectively used and leveraged. We have already agreed to provide funding in 2015 for the cross-Border project, social farming across borders, SoFAB. This project is operated through the Leader company, Leitrim Development Company, and allows clients who use health and social services facilities to avail of the option of working on family farms as part of their therapy. It is proving to be extremely effective and it is certainly a very worthwhile model of how we might look at other such projects. Already, this company has placed more 40 clients on 20 family farms on both sides of the Border, following a specialist ten-week training course for the clients as well as comprehensive training for more than 60 personnel on the delivery of social farming. This has been a very successful project which has helped improve the self-esteem of social service clients, has eased them back into the workforce and has benefited the host farms socially and financially. The 2015 funding allocation will enable this Leader company to continue this work and, more important, assist it to develop new social farming initiatives throughout the country. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I are currently in discussion on a number of other proposals which could usefully be advanced using this fund, and I expect that these will be finalised within the next month.

As members will be aware the Government is engaged in a process of reforming local government to make it the main vehicle of governance and public service at local level, resulting in better quality and more integrated service delivery, with enhanced local accountability through the local democratic processes. As part of the reform programme, the Government is pursuing a closer alignment of local government and local development, and proposals to deliver on this are included in Putting People First – Action Programme for Effective Local Government, which was approved by Government in October 2012.

The Local Government Reform Act 2014 underpins these proposals and provides for the establishment of local community development committees, LCDCs, in all local authority areas, as well as for the development by them of the community elements of new six-year local economic and community plans. Most public representatives are very familiar with this process. It is intended that LCDCs will bring about a more coherent and joined-up approach to publicly funded programme delivery in the areas of economic, social and community development than heretofore. It is in line with the bottom-up approach and it all relates to the community.

Local authorities have made significant progress in establishing LCDCs in all 31 local authority areas since the commencement of the Act in June 2014. LCDCs now meet regularly and have made considerable headway in advancing their work programmes since June. They have commenced work on their local economic and community plans and it is intended that these plans will be in place by the end of December 2015. These plans will facilitate closer working relationships between all development agencies at local level and should bring greater co-ordination to the broad range of local and community development activity in each LCDC area.

LCDCs have also successfully managed the tendering of my Department's new social inclusion and community activation programme at local level. This tendering process is nearing completion and we expect that the successful tenderers will commence programme delivery in all areas from 1 April this year. This is the critical element, that is, that we are on the ground from 1 April delivering those services.

It is also envisaged that LCDCs will be central to the delivery of the Leader programme 2014-2020. The reforms at local level are also being supported at a national level through an interdepartmental group supported by my Department. Under the oversight of this group, we have gone recently to consultation on a proposed framework policy for local and community development. The purpose of the policy is to underpin a whole-of-government approach to the planning, oversight and delivery of local and community development programmes at national or local level. When approved, it will provide a framework for supporting and investing in community development actions and approaches that empower communities to participate in and influence decision-making processes and bring about change for the benefit of people within those communities, again adhering to the bottom-up approach.

I was recently assigned to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and now have taken on additional responsibilities which include the implementation of the Leader elements of the rural development programme, RDP. Leader is delivered using a community-led approach where it is the rural communities themselves that are the primary decision-makers regarding what is needed to support the development of their own areas. Leader has formed an integral part of the support framework for rural Ireland since it began in the early 1990s. The most recent programme covering the 2007-2013 programming period has provided almost €340 million to rural communities since it commenced in 2009. Since 2009, almost 9,000 enterprises have been supported and more than 4,000 jobs created. In 2014 alone, 1,880 enterprises were supported creating more than 1,100 jobs.

The support is delivered through the framework of local development strategies implemented by local action groups. The current round of Leader is coming to a close, and the selection process for Leader strategies for the 2014-2020 programming period is due to begin shortly. I expect to have these strategies operational in all rural areas by the end of 2015, although I envisage that many strategies will be operational by late summer or early autumn this year.

The Leader element of the RDP 2014-2020 will provide €250 million in financial resources for rural areas over the next five to six years with the aim of helping to address issues such as poverty, social inclusion and the economic development of rural Ireland. I am very committed to this type of approach and believe that it will continue to be an integral part of the support system for the development of rural communities for many years to come.