Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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615. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the date on which north and east Kerry Development Partnership officially took responsibility for the administration of LEADER funding in the Dingle Gaeltacht area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27621/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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North and East Kerry Development Partnership officially took responsibility for the administration of Leader funding in the Dingle Gaeltacht area on 24 October 2012. My Department continues to provide support and advice to the local action groups in Gaeltacht areas as part of the process to bring all eligible legacy Meitheal Forbartha no Gaeltachta, MFG, projects to final drawdown of approved Leader funding.

My Department recently completed a full review of expenditure under the Leader elements of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 in order to apportion the remaining funding among all the LDCs contracted to deliver the programme. As part of this exercise €6 million was provided for the Gaeltacht areas formally served by MFG.

When apportioning the €6 million among the Gaeltacht areas, as a first step, my Department provided funding to cater for the former MFG legacy files and associated administration costs. This amounted to €3.04 million in total. Of this €265,390 related to North and East Kerry Development Partnership, NEKD, i.e. €221,158 in MFG legacy files and €44,232 in associated administration costs. NEKD was awarded a total Gaeltacht allocation of €483,183. In addition, NEKD was awarded a further €2,087,208 for their area which they may also spend in the Gaeltacht areas if they so wish.