Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the estimated number of jobs created both on a full-time and casual basis under the Leader rural development initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7003/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Axes 3 & 4 (LEADER) of the Rural Development Programme (RDP), for which my Department has responsibility, continues to facilitate access to significant financial resources for rural communities. The main objectives of the RDP are to improve the quality of life in rural areas and facilitate the diversification of the rural economy. The RDP is designed to address directly many of the challenges facing rural communities including the need to increase economic activity and stimulate job creation; improve access to basic services for rural dwellers and encourage rural tourism based on sustainable development of natural resources. The programme is inclusive in its approach to arriving at solutions to such challenges using a "bottom up method" where local communities provide local solutions.

Interventions funded under this part of the RDP provide support for the development of rural areas in the broadest possible sense. RDP funding helps to develop vibrant rural communities as well as broaden and increase economic activity to support job creation. In this context many projects can take time to develop and any outputs and impacts of the support take time to emerge. However, Axes 3 & 4 of the RDP have supported the creation of 1,246 jobs to end December 2011. The programme monitoring system collects the data in the form of full time equivalents (FTE) and does not routinely collect casual employment numbers separately. The programme has, to date, assisted 3,329 enterprises in rural areas and supported 847 tourism actions. Many of these interventions have job creation potential and I am confident that, given the time required, they will directly support further job creation in their own local areas.