Seanad debates
Wednesday, 28 June 2017
Commencement Matters
Leader Programmes Administration
10:30 am
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Michael Ring. I wish him well in his new role following his promotion. It is great to see camaraderie between two Mayo people. Ar aghaidh leat, Senator Conway-Walsh.
Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I will share my time with my colleague, Senator Ó Clochartaigh.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I will stop Senator Conway-Walsh at three minutes and Senator Ó Clochartaigh will have one minute.
Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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Thank you. I congratulate the Minister on his new position. We are happy in Mayo and in rural Ireland to have somebody at the Cabinet table. There are huge expectations of the Minister and a lot of issues to be dealt with. I wish him well in his work. It is important for us all to work together.
I thank the Minister for coming to the House to address the very serious issue arising from the implementation of the 2014-20 Leader programme. He will know that all is not well in Leader-land. From 1992 to 2016, the programme was very successfully delivered by local development companies. He will also be aware that I worked for one of them myself, South-West Mayo Development Company, for many years.
The current Leader programme was launched on 31 July 2016, and was allocated €220 million to address poverty reduction, social inclusion and the economy of rural areas. A decision was made by the Minister's Government that the Leader programme would be delivered under the local authorities. This was in spite of thousands of people gathering in community halls and hotels all over the country to tell it that its decision was wrong and that it was trying to fix something that was not broken.
A number of issues are now arising as a result of this decision. First, the level of grant approvals at national level is extremely low although we are now 11 months into the programme. By way of comparison, I cite a mid-west local action group that, in previous iterations of the programme, at this stage in the process had spent €1.4 million of the grant aid. Under the current programme the same group has only spent €6,600. Another group had allocated €1.7 million by this point in the previous programme, yet in the current cycle, no grants have been finalised at this stage because of all the bureaucracy involved.
The estimated minimum timeline for the promoters seeking grant support from the expression of interest to the grant contract stage is now around nine months. This is totally unacceptable. The programme administration workload has trebled, reducing time for front-line staff to support communities and entrepreneurs to engage with the programme. The Minister's Department is contracting Pobal to audit 100% of the programme expenditure. This is unprecedented. The previous administration checks were carried out very effectively by local development companies. That is evidenced by the low level of ineligible funding in the 2007-13 programme, when it was at only 0.5% and incurred no additional cost. In reality, the local development companies continue to undertake the checks, passing them on to local authorities who, in turn, pass them on to Pobal for triplicate checks. The cost of this function may end up becoming very significant.
There are a couple of actions that the Minister can take. He can reduce the administration levels by identifying a lead Department to streamline the Leader funding to local development companies. He must utilise the available option of the simplified cost as well. It will enable Leader to focus on communities and achievements in the local development strategy. He must remove the expression of interest above all. I know there have been attempts to do so but it has not been done. It adds three months to the application time for promoters and is not working. The Minister must also remove the additional public procurement requirements, to streamline anything under €100.Travel and subsistence must be included because, again, there is huge bureaucracy surrounding that.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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The Senator has used her four minutes, so Senator Ó Clochartaigh is excluded.
Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I have five minutes.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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No. The Senator has four. Many Senators on Commencement matters take five minutes but they should not. I will give Senator Ó Clochartaigh a few seconds.
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)
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I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and echo Senator Rose Conway-Walsh's sentiments. We are seeing the same problems happening in County Galway. A particular issue I would like the Minister to look at is Leader on the islands, the reorganisation of the Leader companies and the fact that the islands have now been separated and not been given a specific Leader budget. This is a particular disadvantage to the islands. It did not make any sense and it needs to be looked at, so perhaps the Minister could do so. There are issues in Galway which we might raise with the Minister again, but the issues Senator Conway-Walsh raised are being felt across the country in many rural areas.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for his brevity.
Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach and the two Senators for their good wishes. I look forward to working with them. This will not be a simple job but, at the same time, I have a role and a part to play. I have a seat at Cabinet, and whatever I can do for rural Ireland I will be there to do it. The first problem I inherited when I took over this job was this issue. I will read out the official response but then I wish to make a few further comments.
The Leader programme is a key part of the Government's Action Plan for Rural Development and has the capacity to deliver significant outcomes for rural areas. Leader funding is managed and delivered by local action groups in each of the 28 Leader subregional areas around the country. The Leader programme funds projects under policy themes related to economic development, enterprise development, social inclusion and the rural environment. In total, €250 million will be invested in Leader over the period up to 2020, and one of my priorities in my new position will be to ensure that this funding is delivered to the rural communities and businesses that need it. The programme is co-financed by the European Union to the value of €157 million and is subject to EU regulatory provisions governing rural development funding. It is important, therefore, that appropriate checks and balances are in place to ensure that the funding is delivered correctly.
In light of a number of serious issues that arose in the delivery of the previous Leader programme, my Department has made some administrative changes to the programme to safeguard the public funding invested through Leader. These changes will ensure Ireland's continued sanction by the European Union to deliver the Leader programme. At the same time, the Government wants to see the Leader programme implemented as efficiently and effectively as possible, and I am aware of concerns regarding some of the administrative procedures related to the programme and the processing of applications. In this regard, on 17 May last, my predecessor hosted a forum with participants from all of the local action groups and local development companies delivering the Leader programme to explore the issues of concern to them and identify potential solutions aimed at streamlining the current administrative and application procedures. The forum, which was attended by more than 70 people, was very productive and participants identified a number of areas where they felt procedures could be streamlined and where the burden on project applicants could be reduced. As a result of the contributions made at the forum, a list of programme modifications has been developed to improve the delivery of the Leader programme and these have been communicated to all the local action groups and local development companies. In total, I am committed to implementing 31 actions - 31 changes - to improve the administrative procedures relating to the Leader programme. These actions represent a very comprehensive response to the issues raised and the solutions identified by the participants at the forum.
The two Senators are correct in that I want to see this Leader funding administered, I want to see the money spent and I want to see it streamlined. I have given a commitment now that I will monitor this from week to week. The Senators are quite correct that the funding is in place. We want to get it out to the areas that need it and to the people who have made the applications. We have made 31 changes and I am told that these companies are all happier now. I hope we will now see a big improvement in the roll-out of the number of applications that have been received, but I want to see the roll-out of money, I want to see the money spent and I want to see some of it spent before the end of the year.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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That is a very strong commitment. I ask Senator Conway-Walsh to be brief. I think Mayo will win the All-Ireland after this.
Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I am in daily contact with Leader companies. I need to make the Minister aware that even some of the promises regarding expression of interest, Article 48 and procurement issues that were made during those meetings are being rolled back on and I ask him to look at this again. He will also be aware, looking at the whole programme, how much the funding has been cut. Even if we take Cork alone, the original programme was €49 million, it is down now to €13 million and in Mayo we lost out on €9 million. We need to look at the amounts of money each implementing partner has because they do not have sufficient money and there should be a cap on that so that at least each company gets €5 million in order to be able to do its work. I will work with the Minister in every way I possibly can on this programme. He knows what happened to us under Fianna Fáil and Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta. We were left for years with no Leader programme whatsoever. I want to see this succeed as much as the Minister does.
Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I do not disagree with anything the Senator says, and I am not just saying that. I will give you two figures, which are really upsetting. Sixty-three projects have been approved to date, with €1,116,000 delivered. Whatever funding we have now - we have the funding, and I cannot go back on the funding we have - I want to see it spent. Senator Conway-Walsh is quite correct. I want to see the programme rolled out and I want to simplify it as much as I can. I will be monitoring this but I have no direct control over the applications and so on. Regarding the way it is administered, I have a responsibility to Government and to Europe but, at the same time, I want to see the money spent.
Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister's Department be the lead Department for Leader? Perhaps he could clarify that.
Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We are the lead Department and I have responsibility for the Leader programme.
Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I have been very flaithiúlach with the Members.