Dáil debates
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Grant Payments.
3:00 pm
Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
Under the National Development Plan 2000-06, my Department operated a grant aid scheme for the development of commercial horticulture including the mushroom sector. Over the period 2000-06 a total of €5.01 million was paid to 190 mushroom growers. The following schedule shows the breakdown per county to mushroom growers for the period of the National Development Plan 2000-06.
| County | No of Applicants | Total Grant Aid Paid |
| € | ||
| Carlow | 5 | 134,853 |
| Cavan | 45 | 1,019,515 |
| Clare | 1 | 16,399 |
| Cork | 1 | 9,939 |
| Donegal | 13 | 198,212 |
| Dublin | 3 | 68,969 |
| Galway | 4 | 23,338 |
| Kildare | 9 | 163,832 |
| Kilkenny | 1 | 7,535 |
| Laois | 1 | 5,777 |
| Leitrim | 3 | 67,089 |
| Longford | 2 | 26,665 |
| Louth | 1 | 9,999 |
| Mayo | 15 | 733,683 |
| Meath | 4 | 252,663 |
| Monaghan | 34 | 1,251,240 |
| Offaly | 2 | 8,399 |
| Roscommon | 2 | 134,854 |
| Sligo | 1 | 11,852 |
| Tipperary | 23 | 557,644 |
| Waterford | 1 | 54,407 |
| Westmeath | 9 | 78,676 |
| Wexford | 7 | 62,154 |
| Wicklow | 3 | 112,721 |
| Total | 190 | 5,010,415 |
It is clear there is a considerable difference between counties. Deputy Crawford's area of Cavan-Monaghan received a great deal, whereas my area and that of Deputy Sherlock received much less. The grant aid is not consistent across all counties.
The European Commission has recently approved, under the State aid guidelines, the new NDP scheme of investment aid for the development of the commercial horticulture sector and applications are awaited at present. The closing date for receipt of applications under this scheme is 30 November 2007.
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