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

I thank Ms Rooney for her comprehensive outline of the fund. I have a number of preliminary questions on which she might be able to give me information. Can she confirm that any proposal received by the Department that has an enterprise element is subject to state aid rules? Ms Rooney has said that a State-funded agency - I understand that this means a body like a local authority, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Western Development Commission or Údarás na Gaeltachta - must be the lead agency. When one reads about the scheme, one sees that this stipulation is part of it. Is a LEADER company eligible to be a lead agency? I would also like to ask for details on the successful applicants to date, broken down across categories like enterprise agencies and local authorities. How many of the projects that have been successful to date have been led by local authorities? How many of them have been led by enterprise agencies?

I do not know whether the officials have information on the next issue I would like to raise. I am not a mad fan of these competitions. Nowadays, the cost of entering a competition is continuing to increase as the threshold of information that needs to be submitted gets higher and higher. It would be interesting to compare the total amount of money that all of the applicants spend on taking part in the competition with the total amount of money given to the winners. It is a bit like the lottery. We know what happens in the lottery. The lottery works on the basis that one or two people get a massive amount of money, but the total amount of money paid in by the participants outweighs the total amount of money that comes out. I am not saying that what is happening under the rural regeneration and development fund is at that level. Has the Department done a comparative assessment of the total amount of money spent by the applicants in making applications under the fund, in the context of what the winners get out of it?

A fundamental question arises in this regard. It is probably a policy issue for the Government, rather than a policy issue for the public servants who advise the Government. The example of Gteic, which is based sa Spidéal, has been mentioned. Those of us with tidy and simple minds would say that if Údarás na Gaeltachta were funded properly by the Government, as it was in the old days, Gteic would not have had to go to the second fund and would not have wasted money on making applications under this competitive process. Údarás na Gaeltachta could have decided to support Gteic sa Spidéal as a gcuid acmhainní féin, mar atá i gceist acu a dhéanamh i gCorr na Móna, mar shampla. Is this an efficient way of proceeding? The same thing goes for the town and village renewal scheme. Would it not be better for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government simply to give enough money to the local authorities to do town and village renewal?

Another question arises in this context. It keeps coming up here. New builds are not allowed outside towns and villages. The 1.5 million people in this State who live outside towns and villages account for a high percentage of the population. I do not what is wrong with us. I do not live in a town or a village. I do not know why we are banned from having any development. The other day, I was at the opening of a road that had been built beside a very large enterprise to facilitate people getting to their houses. They got planning permission for this road. Actually, it is the best tertiary road in the county now. It has been taken over by the county council. It ensures that people living in three houses will not have to go past a major industry of 200 people. As far as the rural regeneration and development fund is concerned, the industry in question does not exist. It is out the country at the back of the mountain. I do not get this hatred of allowing anything to happen outside a town or a village. It is often easier and quicker. I think we got the exposition. I did not get the whole of the submission last week as unfortunately, I had to be in a few places at one time. My understanding, however, was that in many cases, it is way more expensive to try to refurbish an existing building in a town or a village than to build a new building. When people are trying to get things done and get the economy going, they cannot be too fussy.

In this town, I have noticed that people seem to be able to knock away buildings that are fine and start again. What is the logical reason for a Department of Rural and Community Development suddenly putting the brakes on rural development?

There is a departmental score and an advisory board assessment, which is sent to the Minister, who approves applications. In how many cases did the Minister not approve recommendations? Has he any facility to approve a project that the board did not recommend? In how many cases did he send an application back for re-evaluation or is he just the proverbial rubber stamp?