Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

I certainly will. I am aware that the physical work the review group is doing, the information we have to provide and the completion of all the surveys has a deadline of the end of April. I expect the report will come shortly after that, but I will return with a firm date for the completion of the report.

In terms of bureaucracy, as was mentioned by several members, I have indicated some of the steps we have taken to address that issue under the programme. The idea of using development workers to work with businesses and communities to develop projects was mentioned. That is a strength of the LEADER programme, and has always been a strength. It continues to be an important part of it. A large proportion of the funding that is given by LEADER is for animation, and in most areas there are a number of different project workers who are working with potential applicants to develop their applications.

Deputy Fitzmaurice asked if LEADER could be made simpler. Everything can be made simpler, and we are continuing to try to make it a more efficient and effective programme. It is simpler now than it was before, in terms of what an applicant has to do now when compared with the last programme. We recently made changes to the checking process. It was previously carried out by Pobal, but from the start of next month the local authorities will be doing that at local level so that there can be more engagement at a local level rather than having to do it nationally. We have engaged with the stakeholders to see what more can be done. We continue to do that, and the chairman mentioned the forum held by the former Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in May 2017. We had another forum last September that was hosted by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring. A big proportion of that event was looking at what we could do under the next programme. We have a number of ideas that have emerged from that. One strongly made point in particular was the need to have a simpler process for smaller amounts of grant aid so that those people would not have the same amount of paperwork to do as someone who is applying for a €200,000 grant. We will certainly look at that within the confines of the regulation for the next programme.

A Senator asked about the level of spend on this programme. The total amount spent over the last programme was approximately €366 million. The budget for this programme was €250 million. We expect that all of that money will be allocated by the end of 2020.

Certainly, some of the payments would run into 2021 and perhaps 2022, but we continue to monitor that. We will review it towards the end of the year when we will have a better idea of exactly how long it will take to draw down all of the fund. Our expectation, however, is that all of that funding will be spent.