Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, a total of €50.5 million of funding has been approved for 1,525 LEADER projects. Under the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, SICAP, for disadvantaged areas, a total of €38 million was provided in 2018. That programme will help more than 110,000 individuals and assist over 5,000 local community groups. Under the community service programme, a total of €44 million has been provided which will help 400 communities throughout the country. We also have the CLÁR programme, the town and village renewal scheme, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme and the community enhancement programme. The latter programme was given an allocation of €4 million this year and I added a further €8 million to that.

Successful programmes operate from the bottom up. The LAGs are dealing with much of this. I have asked them to identify the areas of most need. I am trying to bring this work down to a local level rather than issuing diktats from central Government. I am asking the LAGs to identify where the difficulties lie. All the aforementioned schemes are in place in an effort to target the areas that need help most. In particular, the town and village renewal scheme, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme and the CLÁR and LEADER programmes are important in this regard. While the LEADER programme has run into some difficulties, it is beginning to ramp up now. There are many good projects under way that will help both urban and rural Ireland.

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