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

It seems to me the Minister would be much better off focusing on Exchequer funding. There are fewer rules and he can do more of what he thinks needs to be done rather than some person in Brussels thinking about what he should be doing. A lot of the money he is getting is very small anyway. That leads to the final issue about money. Part of the Leader funding comes from Brussels. We have always run Leader in a seven year cycle. I always felt that with Exchequer funding it should be a continuous programme. There is no reason it would not be and that we would not go into this cycle of closing it down for three years and starting it up for four years. Since it is mainly an Exchequer funded programme we would keep running it and when we get the European money we would break in what we can get, throw it in the pot and keep the rest going with Exchequer funding. The Minister will know himself that every time it all closes down and gets started, communities have to put things on hold if they miss the magic day. Let us run it on a continual basis and whatever comes the lucky way from Brussels let us take it but the rest should be Exchequer funded.