Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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723. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the proposed assessment process for choosing the delivery companies for the Leader programme 2016 to 2020; if his Department will conduct the assessment, or if independent consultants will do so; the tendering process for these independent consultants, if applicable; the measurement that will be used for successful delivery of previous Leader programmes, or if penalties will apply, if an applicant has had a poor performance of delivery; the proposed involvement of local community representatives in this assessment process, given that Leader is designed to be community-led; the proposed timeframe for the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34539/15]

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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The LEADER element of the Rural Development Programme 2014–2020 will provide €250 million in financial resources to support the development of sustainable rural communities. Under stage one of the selection process, any entity who wished to be considered as a Local Action Group was invited to submit an expression of interest. Those successful at stage one have now moved to stage two of the process, which is the preparation of local development strategies for their areas. A minimum of 6 months will be allowed for the preparation of local development strategies. However, I expect that not all areas will require the full 6 months to prepare their strategies. Indeed, I am hopeful that many areas will have their strategies approved and be in a position to begin delivery on the ground in November, with all areas operational and processing applications by early 2016. As required under Article 33 (3) of Regulation 1303/2015,an Independent Selection Committee was established to evaluate the expressions of interest. This Committee will also evaluate local development strategies as they are submitted for consideration. The membership of the Independent Selection Committee is as follows:

- Dr Tommy Cooke (Chair) - Professor Emeritus, Dublin Institute of Technology, Retired Head of Community Links Programme.

- Ms Finola Moylette - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Delegated Paying Agency for LEADER in Ireland.

- Ms. Patricia Kelly – Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Managing Authority, RDP Ireland

- Mr Damien Clarke – Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Representative of FLAGS (Fisheries Local Action Groups)

- Dr David Meredith - Senior Researcher, Teagasc

- Mr Tom Hayes – Divisional Manager, Micro Enterprise and Small Business, Enterprise Ireland

- Ms Fiona Buckley – Head of Experience Development, Failte Ireland.

My Department has engaged Pobal to carry out the preliminary evaluation of the local development strategies in order to assist the work of the Independent Selection Committee. Each strategy must meet a minimum standard and must achieve an overall score of at least 65%. They must also achieve a minimum threshold score of at least 12 out of 20 under the ‘Quality of the Strategy’ criterion. As previously indicated, the Independent Selection Committee will make all final decisions regarding the selection of the local development strategies. The table below sets out the scoring criteria and weightings.