Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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25. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the status of the new Leader programme, when it will be delivered in communities, the status of its delivery in County Galway, if its commencement in County Galway will be delayed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44110/15]

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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Ireland is conducting a two stage process for the selection of local development strategies to support the delivery of the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. Stage one of the process is now complete and those successful at stage one have moved to stage two of the process, which is the preparation of local development strategies for their areas. The preparation and submission of local development strategies is underway in each of the 28 designated sub-regional areas. A minimum period of six months to end-January 2016 has been allowed for the submission of strategies by all Local Action Groups, with the majority expected to submit strategies within that timeframe. To date, six local development strategies have been received and these are being considered at present.

At stage one of the process, two entities in Galway submitted qualifying expressions of interest to become the Local Action Group for the Galway sub-regional area, namely Forum Connemara covering the Connemara municipal area and Galway Local and Community Development Committee covering the whole county. My Department has facilitated a number of meetings with both entities with a view to bringing all interested parties together to develop one coherent local development strategy for Galway. To date, no agreement has been reached between the parties and both entities are preparing separate strategies for their selected areas.

In areas where a single strategy is submitted, an Independent Evaluation Committee will review and evaluate these strategies with a view to ensuring that the strategies meet the required standard. In areas where entities do not come to an agreement and multiple strategies are submitted, it will be a matter for the Independent Evaluation Committee to make a decision on the basis of the quality of the local development strategies submitted. In this situation, the Independent Evaluation Committee will not make a decision on the successful strategy until all strategies for that sub-regional area have been submitted for assessment.

I understand that the local development strategies for Galway are expected to be submitted for evaluation in January 2016.