Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)

I want to outline the current situation with regard to LEADER funding. East Galway is receiving €37 per person which compares very unfavourably with all of our neighbours. Roscommon receives €97 per person, Offaly gets €76 per person while in Mayo, the figure is €64. This really restricts what our local development company can do because it has such a limited amount of funding. It means that our communities miss out on investment and new facilities. We all know of the fantastic impact that LEADER has had in all of our communities and how they have benefitted from it. We are not asking for special treatment here but there certainly should be equal treatment for east Galway. We are not a wealthy part of the State by any means and I ask the Minister to revisit this to ensure a more equitable split in the allocation, based on the appropriate socioeconomic data, in future rounds of LEADER and in any interim Exchequer-funded programme.

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