Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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228. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown of the funding provided to Inishbofin Island in 2013, and 2014 by the sections of his Department originally part of the old Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. [8571/15]

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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Under the LEADER element of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013, my Department contracts Local Development Companies to deliver the programme locally in line with the ‘bottom-up’ approach to rural development.

Comhar na nOilean is the Local Development Company which is responsible for delivery of the programme on Inishbofin Island, and it provided funding of €64,445 and €2,552 to the island in 2013 and 2014, respectively, under the programme.

My Department’s Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) is the largest social inclusion intervention of its kind in the State. The current programme is being implemented on a transitional basis until 31 March, pending the roll out of the new Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) on 1 April.

The LCDP aims to tackle poverty and social exclusion in disadvantaged communities. It is a key tool of Government in providing employment supports, training, personal development/capacity building and other supports for the harder to reach in the most disadvantaged areas in society. It is a locally accessible, frontline intervention, supporting disadvantaged communities. The LCDP also operates through the nationwide network of Local Development Companies. My Department has provided LCDP funding of €101,547 in 2013 and the same in 2014 to Inishbofin Island through Comhar na nOilean Teoranta, which is the Local Development Company with responsibility for the off-shore islands. The group is currently being funded through LCDP interim arrangements until 31 March, pending the outcome of the SICAP competitive process.