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

Reading the fine print of the Estimate, the Minister has €30 million for the Leader programme. There is a carryover of another €5 million, giving a total of €35 million, of which €11 million or €12 million will go to the cost of administration of th programme. How this is done is one mystery I have yet to solve. It is considered to be capital expenditure, but it is actually to meet the cost of administration. That leaves an allocation of about €23 million for this year. It concerns me that, give or take a few hundred thousand euro, there is a total of €23 million because I understand that at the beginning of the year the Department spent €1.5 million. It is even more concerning that in the months from February to April total expenditure on projects was €500,000. I am not blaming the Minister for this because it is up to the companies involved, all of which I understand have been set up. Only one - Galway East which I presume is up and running - had not been approved tjo receive even €1. The rest seem to have been approved. The figure for approvals has gone from €20 million to €29 million. However, one third of the year has passed and I suspect very strongly that the figure of this year will go nowhere near €23 million. That is why I asked the Chairman a serious question. He remembered this cycle last year.

Rather than leave it until after the holidays, sometime between now and the end of June the Minister might have to make a genuine call or what we used to call the cash call. If the money is not going to be spent to meet demand under the Leader programme, it could be spent more usefully on other things. When I look at the accurate expenditure figure for LEADER - According to the reply I received to a parliamentary question on 17 April, at the end of March the accurate figure for expenditure under the Leader programme was €2.6 million.

Is the Minister already planning? In his heart and soul, the Minister might recognise this as not being far off the mark. It is very likely that if he does not do anything, he will wind up with not all of this being spent. As the Minister knows, except for local improvement schemes, LIS, the spending of money is slow. If one waits until September to start checking the money, one will not get out of the door by the end of December. There always seems to be a concern in the Department that it might bust a bolt in capital expenditure. That can happen in current expenditure and has to be avoided at all costs. It is much harder in capital. Normally, in December, one is actually scrambling around looking for bills to pay but in the event that one arrives on 1 December with all one's bills paid, everything up to date but with the Department out of money, any bill that comes in in December does not have to be paid until January if one so chooses, because there is a 30-day pay period. There is a great cushion there, as the Minister knows, and there are other devices to shelter the Minister. What is the Minister's prognosis for the spend on Leader? Does he really believe he is going to spend €23 million, that is, spending €22 million between now and the end of the year, at the end of November and beginning of December, because the Minister has virtually spent none? If he is not going to spend it, when is he going to start shifting the money or at least making contingency plans to shift the money and getting other programmes that the money could be spent on? I have many good ideas for the Minister but we would want some lead-in time.