Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 391: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if it is intended to reconstitute the CLÁR programme with a view to identifying the way strategic support could be realigned to respond more rapidly to emerging social or economic problems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41217/08]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The CLÁR Programme was set up as an innovative programme to deal with the infrastructure deficits in the most peripheral communities in Ireland, to qualify under the CLÁR Programme, an area had to have lost since 1926 an average of 35% of population. Poor infrastructure is one of the major challenges faced in such areas. For this reason, the CLÁR Programme has focused on those elements of infrastructure, social and economic, that most affect the lives of local communities. One of the strengths of the CLÁR Programme has always been its ability to focus on priority needs in CLÁR areas.

As Minister, I believe that we need to be constantly addressing the new challenges faced by small rural communities and that the programme must be continuously refocused to deal with the most urgent infrastructural deficits especially in the current economic climate. My Department will continue to review the entire programme and the individual measures within it to ensure its continued relevance. My Department officials are in discussions with various Government Departments, State Agencies and other interested parties in relation to new and existing measures on an ongoing basis. The development of CLÁR will be kept under review in this context.