Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under the rural development programme for 2007-13, there is a total allocation of some €4.8 billion over the lifetime of the programme. Of this allocation, over €4 billion has been spent to date. The European Council agreement on the multi-annual financial framework provides some €313 million per year for the new rural development programme for the period 2014-20, or a total of €2.19 billion, for Ireland under Pillar 2 of the CAP. A general EU co-financing rate of 53% is set out in the draft rural development regulation but this rate may rise to a maximum of 80% for measures such as farm and business development, co-operation activities, and LEADER projects. Environmental type measures may be co-funded up to 75%. The total Exchequer funding that will be required to draw down the available European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development funding will depend on the types of measures included in the new rural development programme and on the co-financing rates applied to these measures.

Work is currently ongoing in my Department to design the new rural development programme for the period 2014–20. In designing the new rural development programme, my Department must take account of the range of requirements set out in the draft rural development regulation and the need to support key policy aims for the agrifood sector in the light of the Food Harvest 2020 strategy. A number of ex-ante analyses are being undertaken and a public consultation process has also taken place.

If the Deputy is looking for an estimate on the minimum spend to get acceptance of a rural development programme from the Commission, I think we would have to be spending an average of about €430-450 million per year on average. That would involve providing minimum co-financing from the Exchequer for a full drawdown. I find that approach totally unacceptable and I have been working intensively with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the last ten days to try to agree an approach to rural development will recognise the potential for growth and expansion in the rural, and which will give agriculture, agrifood and the rural economy the priority they deserve. However, that must happen within the context of the resources available to the Government, and I think people need to be ambitious but also realistic about what is possible.

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