Written answers

Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Departmental Programmes

9:00 pm

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 60: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the progress which has been made in regard to simplifying delivery structures with improved coverage and level of service locally of development schemes under the remit of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36930/05]

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply of 4 February 2004 to Questions Nos. 151, 153, 156, 163, 172, 173 and 185 on this topic.

Arising from the review of local and community development structures which I initiated in conjunction with my colleagues, the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Government agreed, in January 2004, a series of measures designed to: improve delivery of services on the ground; improve arrangements under which community and local development initiatives are delivered; re-affirm the Government's commitment to local and community development programmes; and improve cohesion and focus across various measures and enable communities to more readily access and make maximum use of the funding available.

In line with that decision, local and community development agencies were requested to advance improvements in linkages, cohesion and sharing resources. City and county development boards were given the role of co-ordinating the cohesion process. Cohesion funding of €3,248,600 was allocated during 2004 to support specific measures arising from that process. These were mainly focused on improving current arrangements with regard to resources, staffing and geographic coverage.

I am making funding of €7 million available over 2005 and 2006 to advance cohesion at the local level. The core objective of this round is the alignment of local, community and rural development organisations to achieve full area coverage of these programmes by the end of 2006. In rural areas, this will involve rural and local development groups coming together to secure a unified overarching structure which will provide full area coverage. In urban areas, this will involve local development groups securing full area cover.

Until now, there have been parts of the country not covered by the local development social inclusion programme whereas the Leader programme covered all of rural Ireland. As part of the change that will take place on a gradual basis over the next year and a half, it is intended that in both urban and rural areas, the local development social inclusion programme will cover all parts of the State. The major advantages of such an approach are that the State will be able to deliver programmes such as the rural social scheme through these new unified structures because they will have all-area cover.

Proposals from local and community development groups are currently being assessed and I hope to be in a position to make a decision on funding support very shortly.

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