Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on the activities and programme of the Fingal leadership partnership programme; the actions the organisation has taken to support enterprise and job creation in Howth, Sutton, Baldoyle and Portmarnock in Dublin North-East; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13881/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Fingal LEADER Partnership (FLP), an independent company limited by guarantee, delivers the Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) and Rural Development Programme Ireland 2007 – 2013 on behalf of my Department. The LCDP aims to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities. Funding of some €63m has been made available for the Programme in 2011, with some €435,000 allocated to FLP.

Among other things, the Programme seeks to increase peoples work readiness and employment prospects through the development of a range of services to support, prepare and assist people enter the labour market, the development of strategies with local enterprises to increase local employment prospects and the development of strategies to increase self employment prospects. In this regard, FLP is delivering a range of initiatives throughout the Fingal catchment area, including Howth, Sutton, Baldoyle and Portmarnock. These initiatives include:

· English language and literacy training aimed at providing unemployed migrants with pre-employment training opportunities;

· Pre-employment training initiative delivered in collaboration with FÁS, Department of Social Protection and employers aimed at providing unemployed persons with opportunities to gain skills and qualifications necessary for employment within the healthcare sector;

· Information and guidance services, start-up training and support for new enterprises, and support and mentoring services for FLP established businesses; and

· Workshops in rural areas for unemployed clients in connection with the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance Scheme (BTWEA)

Fingal Leader Partnership (FLP) is an integrated local development company (LDC) made up of Rural Dublin LEADER Company (RDLCo) and Co-operation Fingal (North). This group is one of the LDCs contracted to deliver the Rural Development Programme (RDP) with an allocation of €7,766,780 and expenditure to date recorded at €812,600.92. The outstanding projects commitments for the group amount to just under €400,000 most of which is expected to be drawn down during 2011.

For the purposes of implementing Axes 3 & 4 of the Rural Development Programme (RDP), the following areas are excluded;

· The City Council boundaries of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick

· The Borough Council boundaries of Kilkenny, Sligo and Wexford

· The Town Council boundaries of Athlone, Ballina, Castlebar, Cavan, Dundalk, Ennis, Killarney, Letterkenny, Mallow, Monaghan, Mullingar, Tralee, Tuam and Tullamore.

During negotiations in respect of the Rural Development Programme, the European Commission indicated that the OECD definition of rural areas should be used to define the rural areas that would be covered by the Programme. The OECD defines rural areas as those with a population density of less than 150 persons per square kilometre. It was considered, in the Irish context, that a more appropriate course of action would be to remove the urban areas defined as hubs and gateways in the National Spatial Strategy from coverage under the Programme.

The use of this definition, rather than a population density calculation, ensures that Axes 3 & 4 Rural Development Programme funding is available to a more significant number of rural areas, which would otherwise not receive funding under the Programme. This approach was adopted following detailed negotiations with the European Commission and is the best possible outcome in relation to Programme coverage.

All local action groups contracted to deliver the RDP work within a framework which includes a local development strategy submitted as part of the RDP application process. In preparation to deliver Axes 3 and 4 of the current RDP, Fingal Leader Partnership (FLP) conducted a comprehensive review of their operational area. This resulted in the reconstitution of the operational area for the purposes of implementing the RDP.

The local development strategy of FLP details the rationale behind the development strategy as well as detailing the areas to be covered by the strategy. A number of EDs in the greater Dublin area had been excluded from previous LEADER programmes on the basis that they are very urban in nature and had high population densities greatly exceeding the OECD definition of a rural area i.e. an area with a population density below 150 people per sq km. As a result of the comprehensive review conducted prior to the current RDP further areas were excluded reflecting significant population increases in many areas in Dublin.

The EDs included in the FLP operational area for RDP implementation are listed below and are detailed in the Local Development Strategy of FLP. In this context the areas referred to in the question are not eligible under Axes 3 and 4 of the current the RDP and as such no actions to support enterprise and job creation in the areas mentioned can be supported from RDP funds.

Airport

Balbriggan Rural

Balgriffin

Ballyboughal

Balscadden

Clonmethan

Donabate

Dubber

Garristown

Hollywood

Holmpatrick

Killsallaghan

Kinsealy

Lucan North

Lusk

Rush

Swords-Lissenhall

The Ward