Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

501. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an update on the progress of an investigation under way in his Department (details supplied); if it is his plan to publish the original complaints that have led to this investigation and if he will consider placing them on the record of Dáil Éireann; if he will provide all the affected parties with a copy of the interim report of the investigation prior to publication; his views on the conduct of the investigation; if other bodies have been involved in the investigation, for example, An Garda Síochána; if so, the current status of their involvement; if he will provide in tabular form a detailed schedule of the costs associated with this investigation to date showing where these costs have arisen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44912/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Mayo North East Leader Partnership is the Local Action Group contracted by my Department to deliver both the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007 – 2013 and the Local Community Development Programme to the North Mayo area. On foot of correspondence received in 2011 regarding a possible governance issue at Mayo North East LEADER Partnership Company, a comprehensive investigation into the issues outlined was carried out by the Inspection Services Section within my Department. As the investigation was effectively carried out in-house, additional costs were minimal.

The Final Report has been provided to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Managing Authority for the RDP, which subsequently reported the findings to the European Commission and to the external accreditation auditors (Deloitte). The findings of the investigation have also been reported to both the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Standards in Public Office Commission and consideration of these findings are now subject to the relevant processes in these bodies. As I understand it, a Garda investigation is currently under way and therefore, at the request of the Gardaí, I am not at liberty to make the original complaint or the final report available to any other parties pending the outcome of the investigation.