Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Ó Domhnaill for raising this matter. The Leader initiative was established by the European Commission in 1991. It was designed to aid the development of sustainable rural communities following the reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Leader II, which commenced in 1994, extended the programme to all rural areas in Ireland and was delivered by 34 groups. While Leader I had been a pilot initiative, Leader II was designed to complement the strategy for rural areas in the national development plan for the period 1994 to 1999. In addition to increased funding and coverage of all rural areas, emphasis was placed on the acquisition of skills and improved capacity-building to ensure delivery of the business plan for the rural area.

Leader continued in the 2000-06 round of EU funding and operated in all rural areas of the country in that programming period. While 36 groups were contracted initially to deliver the Leader elements of the current programming round from 2007 to 2013, there are currently 35. Since 1994, therefore, all rural areas of Ireland, including all Gaeltacht areas, have been included in the Leader elements of successive rural development programmes.

Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta, MFG, the group contracted by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to deliver axes 3 and 4 of the rural development programme, RDP, in Gaeltacht areas, went into liquidation on 7 September 2011 leaving those areas temporarily without access to the programme. Progress in the context of the legal winding up of MFG is ongoing and in this context the final figures with regard to the number of payments due are not yet fully clarified. The Department is aware of the level of funding committed at various stages of the project life cycle, but a series of administrative and financial checks will have to be carried out before payment numbers and amounts can be finalised.

MFG is a private limited company and it is beyond the remit of the Minister or his Department to direct the business of such a company in any way. The group's liquidation process is still ongoing and both the Minister and I acknowledge that the current situation has caused delays in the delivery of the Leader elements of the RDP in Gaeltacht areas. However, this delay relates primarily to the need to ensure the continued effective delivery of projects funded under the RDP, including, in this instance, the capacity to deliver the services through the medium of Irish. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is also responsible for ensuring that any solution is fully compliant with and has the capacity to ensure all projects are fully compliant with all EU and national requirements.

The process of identifying those promoters whose projects are at an advanced stage of development has been largely established and a system entailing co-operation with local development companies, LDCs, contiguous to Gaeltacht areas is in place to facilitate the final checking and processing of payment claims in respect of these projects in the short term. Many of these files have now been sent to the relevant LDCs which will be in touch directly with the relevant promoter to arrange payment.

In the context of the delivery of axes 3 and 4 elements of the RDP in Gaeltacht areas in the longer term, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has been working with geographically contiguous LDCs to determine the optimum long-term solutions to facilitate the continuation of the service previously provided by MFG in Gaeltacht areas.

Following the completion of an open and inclusive process, I can now confirm that a long-term delivery solution for the remainder of the current programme has been agreed for the Gaeltacht areas of counties Galway, Donegal, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Meath. The Department is in the process of formalising arrangements with the relevant local development companies and while there is a system in place to address the current outstanding commitments in County Mayo in general and the future delivery for the Gaeltacht areas of south-west Mayo in particular, some further work is required to finalise a solution for the current delivery in the remaining areas of County Mayo. However, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, expects a solution in respect of that final area will be reached very shortly. The Minister believes the final solution, which sees of the future delivery of the Leader elements of the rural development programme, RDP, allocated to the relevant local development companies, is a significant step forward and is confident the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland will now have fully restored access to RDP funding.