Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the percentage of project commitments that will have been made by the end of this year under the LEADER programme that he expects to be completed by the latest date to draw down EU funds under the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28047/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007 – 2013 commenced in February 2009 after a delay of more than two years which reduced the time available to allocate funding to less than five years rather than the normal seven. I expect, however, that all project commitments under the Programme will be made by 31 December 2013 at the latest. Following a comprehensive review of the commitments and expenditure across the various measures of the RDP I recently notified all Local Development Companies (LDCs) of their revised allocations under the Programme.

My Department has notified all LDCs that it will review the level of commitments in late August to ensure that no company is failing to commit the monies that I have made available to them. My Department has now requested that each LDC submits a plan by mid-June profiling their project approvals and both their project and administration expenditure per month. All project expenditure should be completed by December 2014 at the latest and I expect that in some areas the Programme will be finalised well in advance of this.