Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Clearly, the Minister's Department engaged but, unfortunately, it did not listen. One only has to look at the spending on LEADER and the difference it made to the development of the islands when there was a specific local action group, LAG, in the period 2007 to 2013. More than €527,000 was spent on Mayo islands in that period compared to €129,000 in the last round of LEADER. If one looks at the Galway islands, it is very stark, in that €1.5 million was spent in the period where they had their own LAG versus €197,000 of expenditure in the last round of LEADER. That is a decline of €1.3 million, which is considerable money and has a considerable impact on the islands. It is extraordinary that in the 1990s, 30 years ago, Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann was recognised as a LEADER company but we have fallen back so far. This is completely in contradiction to the new islands policy and I ask the Minister to look at this again.

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