Trevor Sargent
Question:104 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the amount of money that has been paid through the Leader programme since it was introduced.
Written Answers. - Leader Programme.
Trevor Sargent
Question:105 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will give a breakdown of the groups who received moneys through the Leader programme.
Trevor Sargent
Question:106 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if all funding handed out through the Leader programme was matched pound for pound by the recipients.
Trevor Sargent
Question:107 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if all the recipients, both groups and individual members of groups, were asked for tax declaration forms; and if this is a condition laid down by the EC for handing out Leader funds.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 104, 105, 106 and 107 together.
The total public funding provided for the Leader programme in Ireland is £35 million; £21 million EC and £14 million Exchequer. To date some £7.9 million of this has been paid by way of advances to the Irish Leader groups. For convenience I will send the Deputy a list of the groups and the amounts of their individual total allocations rather than detail them here.
It is a requirement of the Leader programme that activities being aided by the groups be normally financed on a 50 per cent public/50 per cent private basis. An exception is administrative costs of the group which can be funded on an 80 per cent public/20 per cent private basis.
The terms of the formal agreement between each Leader group and me provide that the group should keep its affairs in order, that any contractor employed by the group in implementing its approved business plan has a current C2 certificate or a tax clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners and that, where a project is being grant aided by the group, the promoter must produce a tax clearance certificate. While these requirements are not laid down by the EC, they are acceptable to the EC Commission.