Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1170: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the expenditure by his Department on rural development and Leader programmes; the way this money has been allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29273/08]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the LEADER Programmes 2000–2006, total funding of almost €170m has been invested in rural development in Ireland. This funding was allocated to 38 Local Action Groups contracted to deliver the Programmes.

My Department's commitment to investment in rural Ireland will continue over the coming years through the LEADER element (Axes 3 & 4) of the Rural Development Programme 2007–2013. This Programme will provide €425m to improve quality of life in rural areas and facilitate the diversification of the rural economy and, as before, it will be delivered by Local Action Groups through the LEADER bottom-up approach to rural development.

The Deputy may be aware that the process for selecting Local Action Groups to deliver the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 is now at an advanced stage and I expect to announce the award of contracts and the allocation of funding in October.

In addition, a total of more than €240m has been invested under rural development programmes such as CLÁR, the Rural Social Scheme (RSS), Rural Recreation, and the Western Investment Fund (WIF) during the period 2002 to 2007. In excess of €83m has been allocated to these programmes for 2008 as follows:

CLÁR — €21.183m

RSS — €50.323m

Rural recreation and rural development schemes — €8.608m

WIF — €4m.