LEADER funding allocation
Deputy McLoughlin asks how additional LEADER funds will be allocated to counties and applicants. The Minister says €5 million has been assigned to ten companies, with other allocations to be reviewed and possibly reallocated later.
My question concerns regional rural development. What is the process regarding counties that were allocated additional funding? I am sure everybody in the House acknowledges the amount of LEADER funding that was made available throughout this country to very many worthy causes. The additional LEADER funding from the Department of Rural and Community Development must now go through when allocating the additional funding announced by the Minister for various applicants. The next high-scoring applicant in an area that missed out on the original LEADER funding should now be the first to receive the new funding.
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We do not need to know how much we are paying out. We just want to know if there is-----
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I will give a very simple figure. I was delighted to allocate a further €5 million to ten LEADER companies. The criteria were people who had allocated funding or schemes that had been approved. We notified them earlier in the year. We gave the top ten €500,000 extra. Regarding ten to 15 companies, there were only about two or three points between them. I will review the LEADER programme at the end of the year. Some LEADER companies are still not performing and I will re-allocate some of that money in the new year.