Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Chairman will give me a minute and a half - there was a limit of €500,000 to ensure Leader programme money was spent on projects that would be there for the long distance future, because €1 million does very little these days? I understand that the figure is now reduced to €200,000 for non-commercial projects. One will not do anything with any decent community facility with that kind of a grant. Will the Minister confirm that is what has happened and will she explain the raison d'êtrebehind it? It seems that it is going to diminish the effect of the Leader programme in moving away from very small projects that are not long term to ones that would have significant long-term distance?

My last two questions will be very quick. Has the Department any plans to fund Rural Resettlement Ireland? It is my understanding that it has no source of funding and it has been doing good work repopulating rural Ireland and bringing in people from the urban areas where there is excessive pressure. Will the Department fund that organisation to ensure its long-term existence?

Has the Department any plans to provide long-term funding for social farming? I believe there was a pilot project under the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, but is funding going to be provided for long-term social farming? The Minister is aware of the concept of social farming and is she going to provide funds for it long-term?