Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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200. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine who will be the contact agency and-or person for citizens seeking information regarding the EU's rural development fund. [15551/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Development Programme, 2014-2020 will be co-funded from the National Exchequer and the EU's European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The Managing Authority for the EAFRD in Ireland is the Rural Development Division in my Department. The Head of Division in Rural Development Division is Mr. Fintan O'Brien. The Rural Development Division also maintains an email inbox for all queries related to rural development funding (ruraldevelopment@agriculture.gov.ie).

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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201. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will set out Ireland's allocation under the 2014-2020 rural development fund. [15552/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Development Programme, 2014-2020 (RDP) will be co-funded from the National Exchequer and the EU's European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The agreement reached on the Multiannual Financial Framework provides for a total allocation of EU funding of €2.19 billion (€313m per annum over 7 years) to Ireland for a new RDP. €2.037 billion of the EU funding is allocated to measures to be delivered via the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with the remainder allocated to LEADER funding which is administered by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

The Government has shown its commitment to a strategic investment in Rural Ireland and the agri-food sector by providing matching National Exchequer funding at the rate of 46% to supplement the €2.037 billion EU allocation. In addition to this money, there is also an additional allocation from the current RDP 2007-2013 to be spent in 2014 and 2015. When taken in conjunction with the allocation of funding for LEADER measures, this represents a fund of over €4 billion for investment in rural development measures in the period to 2020.