Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 10: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the basis on which he proposes to reduce the number of LEADER committees from 36 to 22; if his attention has been drawn to the concern expressed by those in LEADER programmes at the decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26500/07]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Arising from the joint Ministerial initiative on the review of local and community development structures the Government agreed a series of measures in January 2004 to improve arrangements under which community and local development initiatives are delivered and to improve cohesion and focus across various measures. This process is informed by the following guiding principles:—

improving on the ground services

streamlining structures so as to avoid overlaps, duplication and undue administrative overheads

bringing transparency, co-ordination and improved control to the funding and operation of local and community development measures;

strengthening the democratic accountability of agencies and providers in this area.

The core objective of the process is to simplify and improve local delivery of programmes operated by my Department through the integration and alignment of local delivery structures. The intention is that for the future there will be one local development company in any given area and fewer local development companies overall. This will provide full county coverage and eliminate overlaps and previous fragmented arrangements.

Following exhaustive consultations with and between the local agencies to develop the most suitable configurations of groups, Government decided on revised areas of coverage for local development companies in March of this year and clarified the arrangements in relation to the membership of the boards of these bodies in late July. LEADER and Partnership groups have been asked to give effect to this decision. At the request of and in consultation with the representative bodies LEADER and Partnership groups, my Department has provided detailed guidelines to secure this outcome.

The realignment of local delivery structures will bring the overall number of local development delivery bodies to 55 comprising 38 integrated LEADER/Partnership bodies in rural areas and 17 Partnerships covering urban areas. Deputies will be aware that the integrated LEADER/Partnership model is already a proven success in a number of areas.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 11: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his plans to review the boundary areas under the CLÁR programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26319/07]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if arising from previous years experience, he will expand or extend the remit of the CLÁR programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26829/07]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals for expenditure under the CLÁR scheme in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26830/07]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 115 and 116 together.

The CLÁR Programme (Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais) is a targeted investment programme in rural areas. It was launched in October 2001 and the areas originally selected for inclusion in the Programme were those which had suffered an average population loss of 50% between 1926 to 1996, with the exception of the Cooley Peninsula (which was included based on the serious difficulties caused there by Foot and Mouth disease). The total population benefiting was 284,000 across 17 counties.

Following analysis of the 2002 census data, the CLÁR areas were extended in January 2003 with the total population covered increasing to 362,000 across 18 counties.

I announced a further extension of the Programme in April 2006 to include areas with an average population loss of 35% between 1926 and 2002. This resulted in a doubling of the population benefiting from the Programme to nearly 727,000. The total number of counties now covered is 23 with Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin now being the only counties not included in CLÁR. I have no plans at present to carry out a further review of the areas covered by the Programme.

The Programme provides funding and co-funding to Government Departments, State Agencies and Local Authorities to accelerate investment in selected priority developments. These investments support physical, economic and social infrastructure across a variety of measures. The measures introduced under the Programme reflect the priorities identified by the communities in the selected areas. The CLÁR schemes cover a wide variety of developments such as village, housing and schools enhancement, electricity conversion/installation, roads, water supply, sewerage schemes, health, coastal, sports and community projects. The measures funded by the Programme are regularly reviewed.

A budget of €18.6m has been allocated to the CLÁR programme for 2007 of which €9.46m has been spent to date. The table below gives details of the current position in relation to expenditure.