Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know Deputy Carey is a passionate supporter of the work carried out by the local development company in County Clare. The Deputy raised the issue of additional funding with me on a number of occasions. Deputy Carey is right that the former Minister, Deputy Ring, allocated additional funding to the top ten performing LEADER companies countrywide. That additional money was a positive move to reward the LEADER companies that were delivering the projects most efficiently. Like everything else, unfortunately, there has to be a cut-off point. This means that number 11 on the list was Clare and it just missed out. I would love to be able to tell the Deputy today that we will have extra funding for Clare, but unfortunately I am not in a position to that. I will, however, keep the situation under review in the event additional funding becomes available. My advice to Clare is to keep up the good work, get its projects delivered and get its money spent, that is, for those companies doing that.

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