Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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4. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total funding from his Department to the rural development programme; the key RDP funding priorities for 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3600/17]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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The Government has pledged €30 million over the next five years to renew rural towns and villages. How much of that is included in the new rural action plan? Is it old money which is being regurgitated? There are some serious questions as to what exactly was announced and whether it is the same money. One cannot pay lip-service to rural Ireland. It is vital we deal with it in a meaningful and forthright manner.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland's rural development programme for 2014 to 2020 is co-funded by the EU's European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, or EAFRD, and the national Exchequer. The total financial allocation for the period is approximately €4 billion, of which EU support amounts to €2.19 billion with the Exchequer funding the remainder. This significant financial commitment is a key component in our overall strategy to enhance the competitiveness of the agrifood sector, achieve sustainable management of our natural resources and ensure more balanced development in our rural areas. The allocation of Exchequer funding is part of and subject to the annual budgetary process. As part of that process, some €600 million has been allocated to the rural development programme for 2017. I emphasise that within the structures of the annual budgetary and Estimates process, we are fully committed to the allocation of sufficient Exchequer funding to ensure the full draw-down of the EU co-funded amount over the lifetime of the programme.

In terms of 2017 funding priorities, the funding allocation of €600 million provides continued support for the following: our flagship environmental scheme, GLAS, which now numbers over 50,000 farmers, and the associated GLAS traditional farm buildings measure; the Burren programme, a locally-led initiative focused specifically on the conservation of the unique farming landscape that is the Burren and a third tranche of which will open in 2017 to bring the number of farmers taking part to approximately 400; areas of natural constraint, or as the Deputy and I know them better, disadvantaged areas, with some  90,000 farmers receiving support because of the constraints to farming which they face; the highly innovative beef data genomics programme with 24,000 active farmers; the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, which funds fully completed on-farm capital investments; knowledge transfer groups which cover some 20,000 participants; targeted training for agricultural advisors and farmers who are engaged in the implementation of the rural development plan; the organic farming scheme, which has over 1,800 beneficiaries; legacy schemes from the previous rural development programme, including AEOS and the early retirement from farming scheme; the collaborative farming measure which contributes to the legal, advisory and financial services costs incurred by farmers in drawing up partnership agreements; technical assistance in respect of, among other things, the running of the national rural network, which promotes and monitors the rural development plan; and support for an evaluation of the GLAS scheme.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

As well as continuing to support the schemes that have already been rolled out, two new measures will be introduced and funded in 2017. Tomorrow is the closing date for applications to the new sheep welfare scheme which provides support of €10 per ewe to farmers who undertake actions aimed at improving flock welfare. This scheme has been widely welcomed and fulfils a promise made in A Programme for a Partnership Government. Projects under the European Innovation Partnership, EIP, measure will also commence in 2017. This initiative brings together farmers, researchers, advisors and scientists to look at new and traditional practices, develop ideas and research and co-operate in their own local areas. Closing dates for tenders and proposals, which included the hen harrier and freshwater pearl mussel projects, have now passed but I am pleased to say that a very significant response has been received.

In conclusion, I reiterate that I am fully committed to funding the rural development programme and to ensuring that moneys allocated are spent. In this regard, it is worth noting that the Commission has advised that Ireland well exceeds the EU average in terms of execution of the RDP based on EAFRD spending to 15 October 2016.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle and colleagues for allowing me to go first. The rural development plan must be shown to include completely new funding and not simply represent the rehashing of old budgets. The budget for the 2015 scheme to help rural villages was €6 million a year, but this did nothing to replace the funding lost under the Leader programme which the former Minister, Phil Hogan, destroyed. Information provided to me in reply to a parliamentary question suggests that Leader funding has been cut dramatically for the period 2014 to 2020. There has not been a bob for the last two years. The funding has been cut by 43% which means that towns and villages in rural areas will lose services relating to child care, rural transport and support for start-up businesses. Whereas €376 million was allocated under the programme for the period 2007 to 2013, the new programme to cover the period 2014 to 2020 has an allocation of only €220 million. As such, we are playing with figures. It is a cut of €156 million.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge and no one disputes the fact that Leader funding is not at the levels it was. That is a consequence of the financial climate in which the European Union found itself. Consequently, the funding for rural development under Leader was reduced significantly. In response, the Government asked how it could focus its limited resources at the front line in terms of valuable projects in rural areas. Not without some pain, we decided to cut the administrative side, capping the maximum amount to be spent on administration to drive the maximum amount to the front line for projects. Consequently, there has been a reorganisation of Leader groups, sweating down the number of organisations and targeting, as much as possible, the front line. In some areas, local authorities have put additional funding into this.

The issue may need to be revisited in terms of Exchequer funding, but funding is in place. It would be better if the Deputy lit a candle rather than cursed the darkness. A lot of positive things are happening in rural Ireland and the Deputy, who represents a rural constituency, knows that.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I am not quenching any candle, but we need to put on the lights as happened during rural electrification many years ago by the late Canon Hayes. There has been a cut of €156 million to Leader funding. County Tipperary has lost €20 million in Leader funding. What about other spending on rural environments, such as group water schemes? In 2011, the Department funded all local authorities to administer the rural water programme to the tune of €70 million. By 2016 that amount had dropped to €20.9 million, which is an astonishing gap of almost €50 million and the Minister needs to explain that.

During the same period, in Tipperary alone there was a reduction in payments under the rural water programme of €1.95 million in 2011 to €718,000. We have been devastated. The Minister told me to light a candle rather than curse the dark. The Leader programme has been destroyed. It was held up as a model all over Europe, but the former Minister, Phil Hogan, destroyed us, and was supported by the Government. It is only now being restarted. Nothing has happened in the two years that have elapsed. Expressions of interest for the Leader scheme close tomorrow in Tipperary. That is the current situation. Not a shilling has been provided.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I do not think anything I can say will change the Deputy's narrative or demeanour.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Show me the money.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I will. I was in Dún Laoghaire with fisheries local action groups, FLAGs. Deputy McConalogue knows about this because a group in Donegal covers the north west. We allocated funding from the rural development programme of over €12 million to the group. That is a multiple of what it received under the last rural development programme for rural peripheral coastal locations.

I acknowledge that Leader funding has been reduced, but FLAG funding has increased significantly. I appreciate that Deputy McGrath does not have-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Dublin is not Ireland.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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It happened to be launched in Dublin, but the funding is for all the coastal communities from Malin Head to Mizen Head. Tipperary is not included. I did not see the Wild Atlantic way washing the coastline of Tipperary yet, but the funding covers all the coastal communities and is multiples of what it was in previous years.