Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will get my officials to send the Chairman and the committee an up-to-date list of who has drawn down what in the LIS and how much they were allocated since February.

The Chairman is correct; the rural regeneration scheme is a game changer. It will give communities the opportunity, particularly with digital hubs, food hubs and different projects where there would be an allocation from other organisations. When I came in as Minister, I spoke to the Minister of Finance and I must give him great credit. He asked me what was the one thing we needed and I said it was funds where, sometimes bodies received funds from local authorities, LEADER or from other organisations but they needed an injection of big money to complete a project. That is why the rural regeneration scheme and the urban regeneration scheme were set up. I am aware that it can take some time to get some of the schemes up and running. We have to be careful and carry out due diligence to ensure that the schemes which are allocated funding are done properly in the first instance. We must protect taxpayers' money and we must ensure that everything is in order. These organisations are getting substantial amounts of money. I am pleased with the way that the scheme is working. I am aware of a scheme in County Clare that I intend to visit in the coming weeks. We also have responsibility for the library there. We give substantial funding to Ennis library and we need to turn the sod on that.

The rural regeneration scheme has been receiving applications since August and will be making announcements in the next few weeks. Other Departments have one round, we are coming into our second round. This scheme has various categories. Category 1 is for the big projects that are ready to go. We have made a few changes this time, and now they have to have planning and be more ready to go than the previous occasion. Category 2 enables people to draw down funding to get a scheme ready.

Both of them are working very well. There are some fantastic projects being developed around the country at the moment. When this is over, we will be able to say that various projects were completed under the rural regeneration scheme and people will see that we have gotten value for money and created lots of jobs. I see it happening everywhere.

On LEADER, we conducted an analysis of the programme and decided to give a further €5 million to the LEADER companies. To be honest, I could have just given a bit to everybody but that would have been wrong because some of them are performing very well but others are not performing so well. I have put criteria in place in terms of spend and allocation and my officials administer that. It is a very fair system and I did not get involved in it. I have now decided that we will look at the top ten and reward them. The Chairman has said that his LEADER company is okay, but I will also be looking at the ones at the bottom at the end of the year. If I think there will not be a spend under the programme, I will reallocate some of that money to those that are spending. This is Government money and European money that is available to communities and it should be spent. Some of the companies are doing fantastically well but others are not doing so well. I have heard a lot of criticism of the LEADER programme but my Department can only allocate the funds; it is up to the companies to complete the projects. I cannot give money to projects that are not completed. I cannot hand money over because at the end of the day, I am responsible. I am answerable to this committee and my Department is answerable to Europe with regard to that funding. When the spot checks come, if everything is not in order, then we have a problem. We have had problems in the past and there is no point in pretending that we have not. This year's budget allocation is €30 million but I will need substantially more and I will have to take that from the schemes where the money allocated may not be spent. I am glad to see it ramping up and going so well.

We have spoken previously about the Tidy Towns scheme which is also working very well. I am delighted that for the third year in a row, I have been able to provide €1.4 million for the scheme. I am the first Minister in the first Government to reward the Tidy Towns competition. We did it on a town, village and city basis. Funding for Tidy Towns and for the shows has gone down really well with the voluntary groups that do immense voluntary work for their county and country. It is only a ""thank you" to them. It is not big money but it keeps the shows going and it gives a focus to the Tidy Towns committees. We had 918 entries this year, which is fantastic. I attended the awards ceremony in the Helix and saw the positivity and excitement of those who work for their communities. We are so lucky in this country to have so many people doing voluntary work. That said, I do not know why so many people choose to spoil our countryside, towns and villages. I do not know why they cannot do what the voluntary sector does, by way of the Tidy Towns committees, instead of throwing their rubbish out of their cars and throwing their chip bags on the ground at night. There is a lot of talk about climate change and I hope when people are out at night that they think about the environment, about their communities and about what other people have to do to clean up their mess.