Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to front-load the 2012 and 2013 Leader rural development programme underspend into 2014; if he will extend the Leader funding for the EDI centre for the unemployed in Longford; his views on the future of the Leader programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44816/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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LEADER is a multi-annual programme which has regularly underspent its annual allocations since it began in 2009. My Department has therefore relied on carrying over significant amounts of unspent funding into the following year to meet upcoming commitments. This will also be the case this year. I anticipate that in the order of €50 million will become available to carry forward into 2014 to fund LEADER projects. Final decisions will be made in the wider context of the Department's overall capital allocation and will be published in the Revised Estimates later in the year.

In line with the 'bottom-up' approach to rural development the Local Development Companies (LDCs), contracted on my Department's behalf, are the principal decision makers in relation to which projects are funded under the Programme. I understand that the LDC for Longford has not received an application from the organisation referred to in the Question.