Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that, on 4 November, I announced the local action groups selected to deliver the programme, along with their individual funding allocations. The signing of contracts is under way — indeed, I handled many of them today — and the programme will be open to applications for grant assistance in the near future.

With the signing of contracts, funding to local action groups will commence under the programme shortly. The selection and development of projects and the arrangements for payments to individual project promoters is primarily a matter for the groups. However, I anticipate that project activity will be occurring on the ground in the near future.

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