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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 24 Oct 2000

Vol. 524 No. 5

Written Answers. - Leader Groups Amalgamation.

Dan Neville

Question:

223 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if his Department is considering amalgamating the two Leader groups, Ballyhoura Fáilte and West Limerick Resources, into a single entity. [23005/00]

Leader type activity in the period to 2006 will be delivered through the European Union Leader+ programme, together with a mainstream national rural development programme. Funding of over £117 million has been allocated to these two programmes.

Under the guidelines for both programmes, a prospective local action group must comprise public, private or mixed interests and cover a defined geographic area with a population, as a general rule of not less than 10,000 and not more than 100,000 people. The group should be broadly representative of the community in the area and have the capacity implement a business plan as required by the Leader programmes.

In addition, the report of the task force on the integration of local development systems requires that attention be given to the avoidance of overlap between agencies including Leader groups and to exploring mechanisms of combining rural development and rural partnership activities in rural disadvantaged areas specifically.

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