Dáil debates
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions
Leader Programmes Administration
9:30 am
Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source
The Leader element of the Rural Development Programme 2014–2020 will provide €250 million in financial resources to support the development of sustainable rural communities. Under stage one of the selection process for the new programme, any entity wishing to be considered as a local action group was invited to submit an expression of interest. For the purpose of the new programme, there are 28 sub-regional areas in Ireland, and 45 separate expressions of interest were received. A single expression of interest has been received in 19 of the 28 areas and at least two expressions of interest have been received in the remaining nine areas. In areas where multiple expressions of interest were received, my Department has given an undertaking to facilitate discussions between the relevant entities with a view to engaging all parties and, if possible, reaching an agreement to develop one coherent local development strategy for their area. In this regard, my Department commenced meetings last week with a range of entities, and these will continue over the coming period.
In the meantime, I expect that all of the expressions of interest will be presented to an independent evaluation committee for assessment and decision by late June. On foot of this, preparatory support will be made available to all eligible local action groups selected by the committee. The groups will then be provided with a minimum of six months to develop their strategies, but I expect some strategies to be submitted earlier than this.
The independent evaluation committee will also assess and make the final decisions with regard to the quality of the local development strategies. In areas where a single strategy is submitted, the committee in question will review and evaluate these strategies with a view to ensuring that the strategies meet the required standard. In areas where entities do not come to an agreement and multiple strategies are submitted, it will be a matter for the evaluation committee to a make a decision on which local development strategy best meets the needs of the community. Notwithstanding this, I anticipate that the new programme will be operational in some areas by autumn 2015 and hopefully in all communities by early 2016.
Tom Murphy
Posted on 12 Jun 2015 12:27 pm (Report this comment)
I don't think the Minister understands exactly what is happening on the ground. I work in this sector and this is what I am observing.
LCDC's don't know their roll, they meet once every 2 months, members of the Committee don't even know when some meetings take place, LAG expression of interests were submitted without their input or approval.
Local Authority and Local Development Companies have no Heads of Agreement or memorandum of understanding to decide who does what.
The LCDC's will not be notified until July, then consultations have to be organised during worse time the year to organise them, they then need to be undertaken and then a strategic plan has to be formulated from these consultations all in 3 months.
When we eventually do get to start taking applications it will have been well over 2 years since the last project was committed. Not only is the Government destroying a LEADER programme that has worked so well for 20 years under its current structure (a structure highlighted as a model of best practice within Europe), it has also lost any momentum it had built up in those years.