Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the steps he will take to support the co-operative movement north of the line from Dublin to Galway in order that it can develop products other than butter and skimmed milk powder (details supplied); if a further study is being carried out on this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19431/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Dairy Investment Fund was a fixed period competitive call for proposals for dairy processing companies to assist them in increasing efficiency by supporting the upgrading of existing facilities in order to capture new business and develop value added products. The Government established a fund of €100 million and, when fully implemented, the approved projects will generate total dairy processing sector investment of €286 million. A total of 27 applications for funding were made and 19 projects were approved for grant assistance. Of these, four projects were submitted from the northern part of the country and three were approved for funding. The total investment amounted to €30.83 million, which attracted government grants of €15.42 million.

As regards the project referred to by the deputy, all projects were assessed and scored across a range of evaluation categories and funding was allocated to those projects that performed best in the evaluation process. The fund is now closed, though if further projects emerge, promoters should contact Enterprise Ireland with a view to exploring the nature of support that might be available to particular types of projects.