Mr. Jim Finn:

I will address the questions of Deputy Kenny and Senator Coffey on what can be done to get rural Ireland up and running. I am a voluntary board member from Tipperary and a retired farmer. The biggest mistake in the current LEADER programme is that we are not allowed to animate and build capacity in communities. Members wonder why one community is better than another. My answer is that rural development has a cycle of between 20 and 25 years and we need that to build capacity in rural Ireland. Some communities got up and running in the 1990s and are now the successful ones while others lag behind. The former got assistance more quickly and were maybe better educated. It cannot be done overnight but takes between 20 and 25 years. If the Members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann want to do one thing, they can help us animate communities in the new programme coming down the line.

If we can do that we will be helping to build the communities and to put in place the structures mentioned by Dr. Cooke.

While we are seeking changes in the new programme, in the past farmers, postmen, school teachers and so on became activists in their communities, took on board memberships and undertook the task of empowering their communities. Currently, few young people join the boards of local development companies and we need to address that. All of our companies are doing the best we can. We realise that we have to be accountable but bureaucracy has increased and there is now less local decision making. In the past, decisions were made locally. Nowadays fewer decisions are made at parish level than was the case in the past.

I refer to a very successful organisation that has been already mentioned, namely, the credit union movement, which in the past was available to local development companies and they delivered.