Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 496: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if certain types of investments should be outside of [i]de minimis[/i] ruling, for example, conservation projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25251/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I assume the question refers to projects funded under Axis 3 & 4 of the Rural Development Programme, an EU co-funded programme for which my Department has responsibility. State aid refers to any aid granted by a Member State which distorts or threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or goods. Commission Regulation EC 1998/2006 allows for aid of up to €200,000, known as de minimis aid, to be provided from public funds to enterprises over a period of three years as this amount is considered too small to have an effect on economic activity between competing forces. In the original Rural Development Programme (RDP) document approved by the EC in July 2007, Ireland concluded that, as the aid to be granted under two of the Axis 3 measures of the RDP would be for non-commercial projects, it would not constitute State Aid and would therefore not be required to comply with the de minimis limits. This was recently supported through a formal EU State Aid notification process undertaken earlier in 2012. The measures concerned, Basic Services for the Economy and Rural Population and Village Renewal and Development, provide support for non-commercial community based projects and focus particularly on community infrastructure. Maximum grant amounts of €500,000 are allowable under these two measures. During the design of the RDP, it was concluded that many of the projects possible under the Conservation and Upgrading of the Rural Heritage measure would have commercial elements and accordingly funding awarded under the measure would have to comply with the de minimis regulation.