Mr. Justin Larkin:

I will talk very briefly about County Kildare Leader Partnership, CKLP, and then move on to other topics. County Kildare Leader Partnership is a company limited by guarantee. It was incorporated on 30 November 2007. It has charitable status and is based in Naas, County Kildare. The structure of CKLP has evolved over the past two decades. It conforms with the requirements of all the funding bodies and agencies with which we work. CKLP currently operates under a voluntary board of directors. It was originally established in 2007 in accordance with the governance guidelines of October 2007 issued by the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs. The board is responsible for deciding the strategic approach of the company, the formulation of policy and the implementation of a range of publicly funded programmes.

CKLP successfully delivered the rural development programme from 2007 to 2013 and currently has responsibility and the authority to deliver the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, for the period 2014 to 2017. Under the rural development programme for the period 2007 to 2013, some 232 projects were supported with €8.2 million in Leader grant aid. Under SICAP 2015-2017, operated by CKLP on behalf of the Kildare LCDC, we have exceeded key targets in 2015 and thus far in 2016. For the calendar year 2015, some 1,081 individuals were engaged with on a one-to-one basis. The target was 1,035 and 60 community groups were assisted. The target was 54. The number of individuals of 15 years and upwards in receipt of employment support was 808. The target was 599.

In addition to these two key programmes, the company is also responsible for the administration of a number of other programmes linked to the main funding programmes. These include the rural social scheme. We currently have 22 participants and one supervisor providing supports to 28 community groups throughout the county. We have applied for ten additional positions as part of the recently announced expansion of the scheme by 500 places nationally. We deliver five local training initiatives, based in Naas, Rathangan and Athy, whereby we assist 70 unemployed people to develop new skills, enabling them to seek full-time employment.

We deliver two CE schemes, with 44 participants. The first is called the business development programme and it is based in Allenwood. It assists local unemployed people to develop business ideas with a view to self-employment. The second scheme, the addiction services scheme, works with individuals in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse and delivers services and work experience opportunities to community projects around the county.

We deliver the Tús programme as the implementation body for County Kildare. It is responsible for the employment of up to 300 unemployed people on placement with a range of community and voluntary groups, groups working with disadvantaged communities and local organisations that would not normally have access to employment schemes. We operate one of the largest Tús schemes in the country. It has supported significant improvement in the local environment and the upkeep of community facilities throughout the county.

CKLP, as a host organisation or host agency, supports the work of the South Western Regional Drugs & Alcohol Taskforce, serving Kildare and west Wicklow, in addition to Older Voices Kildare, supporting the employment of five staff members. That is a brief overview of CKLP.

I have been involved in rural development and Leader programmes since 1997. When I joined, the programme was called KELT. It was delivering the Leader 2 programme. It subsequently evolved into Leader+. The most recent programme is the rural development programme for the period 2007 to 2013.

I have provided a more detailed pack of information on County Kildare and some of relevant issues. I do not propose to go through all that right now. I would like to take a few minutes to talk about some of the issues we regard as relevant. We have prepared a document in consultation with Meath and Monaghan Leader partnerships. I will refer to three elements therein, namely, broadband, rural transport and renewable energy. I have provided to members a document entitled Submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs on its Examination of the Issue of "What it Takes to Sustain a Viable Rural Community". We prepared it collectively based on the CEDRA report and its recommendations. We have identified a number of recommendations in the report that we believe are key, relevant and valid and which should be implemented. I will speak about those on broadband, transport and energy.

On broadband, there are two recommendations made in the CEDRA report. Recommendation 15 states:

In the context of the strategic role of broadband, particularly from an enterprise perspective public funding for the provision of next generation services to rural areas (minimum 30mbps) needs to be ring-fenced and should be delivered as soon as possible. Considering the widespread availability of speeds of 50mbps and higher in many rural areas, the priority must be the delivery of 30mbps minimum to all rural areas by the end of 2015.

Local development companies regard the lack of access to high-speed, low-cost broadband as a significant inhibiting factor in the development of viable rural communities. We note the CEDRA report recommends efforts should be made to provide the minimum speed by 2015. Currently, we are waiting for the roll-out of the national broadband plan, which is very much welcomed. We understand that programme is on target to start delivering in 2017. We hope to see next-generation broadband delivered in three to five years from then. Any delays in that process would further widen the divide between rural and urban areas. Broadband in rural areas is a real equaliser. The sooner it can be achieved, the better.

Recommendation 16 refers to the need for population centres of more than 1,500 to have the right investment and speeds of up to 100 mbps as soon as possible, not lower than 40 mbps. We welcome the roll-out of the MANS network to 94 of the larger urban centres and towns. They are receiving high-speed, low-cost broadband through the initiative. On the downside, the trend supports larger urban areas to the detriment of rural areas.

We welcome the mobile phone and broadband task force recently established by the Minister and we look forward to the identification of more immediate solutions to the provision of telecoms and broadband infrastructure in advance of the rolling out of the national broadband plan. Local development companies believe the new Leader programme should be given a more imaginative and expanded role in the matrix of State interventions to provide next-generation broadband access, particularly in supporting community-owned and community-led initiatives, such as the B4RN project in England. Currently under Leader, we are very much restricted to training and small-scale initiatives in regard to community development. We believe there is a more active role for Leader in the rural development programme in this area.

On rural transport, a CEDRA recommendation states:

The Commission supports the Government's initiative to improve and integrate the Rural Transport Programme (RTP) into the overall public transport system. The Commission recommends ongoing and comprehensive monitoring of the programme in order to ensure that it is meeting the transport needs of rural Ireland going forward.

The restructuring of the rural transport programme has taken place and there are now 18 transport co-ordination units delivering rural transport around the country. That has integrated rural transport into the wider public transport service. When preparing the new strategies for the new programme, rural transport arose as a key issue. No matter what community we went into, rural transport was a key issue, along with the need to provide more services.

Rural transport is key to trying to underpin the survival and maintenance of vibrant rural communities, particularly in accessing services that are increasingly being withdrawn from rural locations such as post offices, banking, medical services and Garda stations.

We welcome the additional allocation of €850,000 in the 2016 funding and an increase of €2.19 million for the rural transport programme in 2017. This represents a practical and strong statement of Government policy to support transport in rural areas.

Recommendations Nos. 33 and 34 in the CEDRA report relate to renewable energy. The commission identified that the most significant potential for renewable energy to contribute to rural economic development was through wind energy, marine energy and bioenergy. As LDCs, we welcome the Government's commitment to energy-related goals in the programme for Government. We particularly support the commitment to use the White Paper on Energy 2015 as a framework guide for policy between now and 2030. We welcome the introduction of the strategy to combat energy poverty 2016-2019. We look forward to the commitment to accelerate the updating of the regional planning guidelines for wind farms given wind energy is one of the three areas identified by CEDRA as being potentially vital for rural economies. All local development agencies have identified renewable energy and the green economy as key areas that they will invest in under the new Leader programme. LDCs are well positioned to facilitate the implementation of Government policy and to facilitate rural communities to participate more fully in the development of renewable energy projects that will derive community benefit.