In this session we will consider the further Revised Estimates for Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Islands, as presented to Dáil Éireann on 24 January 2023. I call on the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to make some opening remarks.
Vote 42 – Rural and Community Development and the Islands (Further Revised)
I thank the committee for the invitation to attend here today to discuss and seek approval for the Revised Estimate for the Department of Rural and Community Development. When I was here very recently for a Supplementary Estimate, I noted how important it is that the Department of Rural and Community Development exists as a stand-alone Department. By taking that decision, the Government has ensured a sustainable focus on rural and community development and the islands.
I am delighted to be here again to bring forward this Estimate, which represents the largest-ever allocation for this Department and will ensure the excellent progress made in recent years continues throughout 2023. Gross expenditure of €429 million is budgeted for 2023, which consists of €198 million in current expenditure and €231 million in capital expenditure.
My Department also has a capital carryover of €14.5 million from 2022 into 2023. With regard to the split across programme areas, €201.6 million is allocated for the rural development and the islands programme area, with €10.5 million of capital carryover also being used to support the rural regeneration and development area; €222.3 million is allocated for the community development programme, with €4 million of the capital carryover being used to support the community centre investment fund; and €5.1 million is allocated for the work of the Charities Regulator. The €201.6 million provided for the rural development programme, including the islands, is made up of €166.7 million in capital funding and €34.9 million in current funding.
Capital funding is of particular importance for the rural development programme, delivering schemes such as LEADER; the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF; the town and village renewal schemes; the local improvement schemes, LISs, and CLÁR. These schemes are well established and are having a positive impact on towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. They allow for both small-scale support and large-scale strategic investment throughout rural Ireland.
Last year saw the highest ever level of capital investment under the Department’s rural development programme, with more than €150 million in capital funding paid out. This funding is helping to make rural Ireland an even better place to live, ensuring we support rural communities and helping the rural economy to develop and grow. The 2023 provision will ensure this investment continues, funding the strong pipeline of capital projects approved in recent months and years.
I also note the importance of the €34.9 million in current funding for the rural development programme. The current funding helps to support implementation of policies such as Our Rural Future, Towns Centre First, the national outdoor recreation strategy and, indeed, ongoing policy development. It also funds vital schemes and services including the walks scheme, the provision of rural recreation officers, the Western Development Commission and transport services to the islands. Indeed, current funding for islands is increasing from €8.5 million to €9.5 million to ensure the level of service is maintained.
The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, is here with me today to discuss the community development programme area. The Revised Estimate will see a funding allocation of €222.3 million for 2023, with €158 million for current funding and €64.3 million in capital funding.
Having achieved strong funding growth for the rural development area in budget 2022, a key focus for us in budget 2023 was to achieve vital increases for the community development area. With regard to current funding, one of our priorities was to increase the allocation for the community services programme, CSP. A new funding model was devised in 2022 which will provide organisations with funding based on need and their ability to raise revenue through their services. The provision for CSP will increase by €3.5 million, from €48.9 million to €52.4 million. This will allow implementation of the new funding model, helping to support employment and community services delivery across the country, for disadvantaged communities in particular. Funding for the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, area is also increasing, with an additional €2.3 million, increasing that allocation to €53.3 million. Of that, €1.3 million is going towards the SICAP programme and €1 million will assist other local community development supports. Other important current funding increases for community development are an additional €1.1 million for volunteering supports, bringing that allocation to €6.5 million; new funding of €1 million under the European Social Fund, ESF, for social innovation supports; and an additional €400,000 for public participation networks, PPNs, bringing that funding to €2.85 million.
With regard to capital funding for community development, we launched the community centre investment fund, CCIF, last year and the response was exceptional. This scheme has brought communities together and will ensure every community can be proud of its local community centre. I announced funding approvals of €45 million last year and funding for this subhead is increasing by €12.5 million to €21 million to facilitate this. I am also using €4 million in carry-forward from 2022 to support the CCIF, meaning at least €20 million in funding will be paid out this year as works are completed. I look forward to seeing the impact of this new scheme in 2023 and beyond.
The Government recently agreed to establish a community recognition fund, which will fund the development of community infrastructure for areas welcoming arrivals from Ukraine and those seeking international protection. This capital fund aims to recognise the contribution of communities to the national response. The total fund is €50 million, with €30 million allocated for 2023. This funding will be allocated to local authorities based on the number of Ukrainian arrivals and international protection applicants in their areas and the number of arrivals relative to the population of the area. The scheme opened for applications on Monday, 24 January and remains open until 15 March. I encourage local authorities to engage with communities to ensure that high-quality proposals are now developed.
This Revised Estimate for 2023 clearly demonstrates the Government’s continued strong commitment to rural and community development. It also sets out the funding necessary to ensure that our schemes and programmes continue to support rural areas and communities across the country. It also shows how responsive this Department is to the needs of communities both in terms of how our rural development programme has evolved over time and how new schemes, such as the community centre investment fund and the community recognition fund, can be quickly established and rolled out across the country. I thank the committee for its time. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, and I will be happy to answer any questions members may have.
Questions on the rural development programme will be taken first.
The local improvement scheme, LIS, has been important in many rural areas, including the Minister's, mine and those of other members. Will the Minister provide an update on efforts to secure an allocation to the LIS from the Department of Transport? That would make perfect sense to many of us. Work was under way in the Department of Rural and Community Development to identify the number of applications outstanding, local authority by local authority. Does the Minister have an update on that and what work will be done this year?
The allocation for LEADER in the Revised Estimate for 2023 is less that it was last year. It has fallen from €52,000 to €46,000, which is a loss of €6,000. Will the Minister comment on that?
Funding was recently announced for men's and women's sheds, which is very welcome. That funding will be distributed via the Irish Men's Sheds Association. Will there be an opportunity for sheds operating outside the association? I do not know how many there are but an issue has been raised with me concerning men's sheds that do not come under that association. Is there a way to get this important funding to them?
Men's sheds are very important, more so now as we come out of Covid-19. They are especially important in rural areas where many men are isolated. They may be living on their own and perhaps they used to go to the pub but cannot get to the pub and back home as easily as in the past. Men's sheds are an important outlet for these men. Will consideration be given to reintroducing the specific funding stream that was in place previously? Men's sheds are applying for funding here, there and everywhere, crossing their fingers and hoping to get it. Some of the funding streams are complex and it is hard to get applications right and in on time. There are difficulties with that. The men's sheds initiative is so important that there should be a specific funding stream in place, as there was previously, and they should be supported with guaranteed funding, rather than having open to them only a possibility of funding. In some cases, they have no luck at all with funding.
I welcome the community recognition fund. Is there a timeline for it? Allocations will be given to local authorities but is there a timeline for when those allocations will be made and payments will begin to filter down to communities? In my home town, Ballaghaderreen, there are international protection families, Ukrainians, Afghanis and Syrians. Supports are needed for towns like Ballaghaderreen, which, to date, have not seen any. Syrian refugees arrived in 2017 with the promise of supports, which did not materialise. These small rural towns have people from a wide range of nationalities. Resources are needed, which is why this fund is welcome. Will the Minister provide further information about the timelines?
On the fund for supports for Ukrainians in communities hosting international protection refugees, I think the Minister said the fund will close in March. We all know there is going to be an increase in numbers. I heard on the radio earlier that the war may escalate as winter comes to an end and more people may potentially come here. There may be communities that will not be able to avail of the fund if it closes. Is it possible to keep it open if the money is not all spent and drawn down? Could the fund be kept open until the funding is entirely spent? That would give an opportunity to communities that are not hosting anybody now but may do so in the future.
I will ask a question on this issue before the Minister responds and we move on to the next subhead. The community recognition fund is welcome. I have spoken to the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, regarding the issues and challenges in Ballaghaderreen. There is an opportunity for Government initiatives to be taken to support the local community in a real way. The community feels it has been neglected by the State as regards supports. The difficulty is that supports have been provided effectively on a per capita rather than a needs basis. I see the logic and reason for that. Over the years, Ballaghaderreen has opened its doors to programme refugees a number of times, yet it has never received any recognition for doing so. The funding is insufficient. There needs to be some level of co-ordination across government. It is not just about funding in the Department of Rural and Community Development. Ownership and responsibility need to be taken across government and a co-ordinated approach to supporting communities like Ballaghaderreen is required.
With that in mind, the whole objective here is to support the relationship that is being developed in communities with asylum seekers and refugees, either programme refugees or Ukrainian refugees, who have come into a community.
Businesses that have provided accommodation have been given no money whatsoever. I brought a case to the Minister's attention last November and December regarding a premises that took in Ukrainian refugees last summer. To date, the provider in question has not received one cent from the State. It will not renew the contract when it ends in April. I am hearing across the board that people have not been paid. We have the State pleading with people to open up their homes or premises and take in refugees, yet where people have done so the State has not paid them anything for between six and ten months. This is completely unacceptable and it must be resolved immediately. It should not arise when we have a housing crisis affecting our own people, asylum seekers and refugees. Where accommodation has been provided, the very minimum we would expect is that the State would pay its dues. I ask the Minister to intervene not just by raising it with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, as I and other colleagues have done, but by bringing it directly to Cabinet. This issue needs to be resolved immediately.
I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Deputies for their questions. I will speak first on the community recognition fund, after which the Minister of State will comment. I will then respond to Deputy Kerrane on the issues she raised.
The community recognition fund amounts to €50 million. We want the local authorities to consult the people on the ground because these are the communities that have been impacted and we want to know how we can reward them for making sacrifices. I want to see consultation with communities. I want people on the ground to come forward with suggestions on what they need to make their communities better places. That may be a new community centre or skateboard park, for example. I do not know what they want but they do and that is the point of this fund.
I have managed to secure funding for this scheme for two years. Sometimes we are constrained by a requirement to spend the money within a year. In this case, I said we could not manage the fund in one year because we want good quality projects. We will keep the pressure on to move projects on quickly because we all want to see delivery but we also need to ensure the projects are meaningful. There will be an onus on communities to engage with their local authorities and an onus on local authorities. I would like the message to go out that local authorities will consult communities. It is not what somebody else wants but what people want in their community. Let us see what comes in.
International protection applicants have been accommodated in Ballaghaderreen for a number of years. As the Chairman will know, other funds have been in place, including the town and village renewal scheme, the rural regeneration and development fund and funding via the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. Let us see who applies for the community recognition fund.
Deputy Paul Donnelly asked about new areas that accept new people. I will take his comments on board and keep the matter under review. I do not expect all of the funding to be allocated in the first tranche because it takes time to put a plan together. We know from experience that meaningful consultation is required. This means digging as deep as one can to get the views of people and get buy-in from local communities because that is where one gets much more success.
I take the Chairman's point. We have all encountered cases where payment for accommodation has been delayed. I know that from my own constituency work. The Government is aware of the issue. Substantial additional resources have been put into the relevant section to make sure people get paid. The staff are working their way through this. I, too, knew of people who were waiting to be paid and they have now been paid. There must be checks and balances and the right information must be provided. To be fair, many requests for payment have been lodged and additional resources have been provided.
I have covered all the questions on communities. I ask the Minister of State to comment.
I will comment on the resources that have been made available to address the situation in Ballaghaderreen and, more generally, for towns and villages that need supports and have new communities. We secured a 10% increase in SICAP in budget 2022. A core target group of SICAP is asylum seekers. For this year, we have set aside €10 million for support workers for Ukraine and that funding is being channelled through SICAP. SICAP has been reasonably well enlarged in the last two years to cope with at least two of those groups.
I will stray briefly into my other Department, which I am not representing today. I wish to flag that there is a plan for local authorities to employ integration workers and we hope to see that plan come to fruition later this year. I take the point the Chairman made about the other matter and I will convey it to the Department.
We all know how popular the local improvement scheme is. I have increased the budget for the scheme to €12 million this year. Last year, due to savings in other areas, I was able to provide additional funding for the scheme. The scheme is a priority, and I know it is well received and welcomed. I do not have a list of the outstanding lanes in the different counties but I think I had one previously. We engage with local authorities and while the situation keeps changing, we will continue to engage with them.
I have spoken often about the demand for this scheme. I am still asking the Department of Transport to consider assisting with the scheme given the level of demand. We have engaged with the local authorities to ascertain the exact level of LIS applications on hand in each county. As part of that work, my Department has been informed that the maximum value of LIS projects to be carried out in any one year is €30 million. This is due to factors such as the availability of contractors, etc. I have allocated an extra €1 million and there is €12 million in the fund. My only problem is that if I put more funding into LIS, I would have to take it from somewhere else. These are all important targeted schemes. I will continue to stress to the Department of Transport how important the LIS is for rural Ireland.
On the LEADER programme, the allocation is based on the expected demand this year. It is a cyclical programme and demand varies each year. The amount allocated is based on what we believe will be needed.
I agree with Deputy Kerrane that men's sheds do wonderful work. I have visited many of them. They are great to visit because you get a good cup of tea and an update on what is happening in the area. I want to help them. We provide funding through the scheme to support national organisations, SSNO. This year, we gave the national men's sheds organisation additional funding. Distribution was very simple, with each men's shed getting €2,000, which was well received. Men's sheds have great benefits for communities in terms of people's mental health, providing an outlet for people who have retired and doing good work in communities. Last year, the men's sheds received a once-off payment. I support and value the work done by men's sheds. I will consider whether they need more funding as the year goes on. Men's sheds also receive money from the Department of Health and through our other scheme.
That said, we will not forget about them, put it that way.
Is the Minister aware of sheds outside of the association? I was not but I have been made aware of this. This is to make sure every shed will get that funding because it is so important.
The strength of the men's sheds is probably in the national organisation and the whole network it has. I was not aware that there were men's sheds outside of it. I had the same experience as the Deputy. I do not know if it was the same one but representatives from one men's shed in west Cork contacted to me to say they were not in it. I encouraged them to join the national association because they get the supports there. I do not know why they are outside it. Our plan is to continue to work with the national organisation.
We are just finishing off the rural development programme if Deputy Ó Cuív wishes to ask a brief question.
I presume the CLÁR programme is still focused on areas of low population with a lack of basic services. We are still missing one basic service. It is quite scary that 10% of people are either using private wells or taking a hose out of a stream or whatever. They might think it is good water but it is never the same as the public water supply. The Minister might tackle this issue in a number of ways, including seeing whether she could persuade the Department with responsibility for water to do it.
My belief is that every house should have broadband. I always complimented the previous Government for doing that. At times when my own party was giving out, I stood up and went public to say this is the right thing to do, so just do it, because it will be great value when it is done. It has already proven so. All we need is for it to be done faster.
Every house should have a decent road to it, which is why the LIS is absolutely vital. I am not very happy about the farmer rule in the LIS. I would have thought the first priority was to get a decent road to every house.
The third requirement is electricity in every house. Very brave people in the past have ensured this. Going back a long way, they just went and did it and said that no place is too far out for electricity. The last issue that remains is that we do not have that concept for water. There are pockets of places in my constituency, one of which has 60 houses. It will be expensive per house but in the greater budgeting, when we have it done then it is done. This could be done either by a top-up from the Minister's Department through the CLÁR scheme or the Government could go for broke and say it is time we did the national broadband scheme, but for water. In other words, we would have a national water scheme whereby a fund would be set up for a ten-year programme to connect all those areas and all those houses, whether it is four houses, 60 houses or whatever, that are not commercial for Irish Water to a proper water scheme, preferably a mains scheme. In some cases where there are very high-quality group schemes, that is the next best solution. We should do it once and for all so we can say that in this country, we have a road to every house and broadband, electricity and water, which are four basic things. Would it not be great to sign off on that as a people and say that whatever about any other country, we have achieved this basic level of service for everybody?
As somebody who does not have the luxury of a water scheme, I know all about what the Deputy is talking about in terms of using a well and all the filters one must use try to make sure the water is reasonable, but anyway, it works.
We cover a number of different things in the CLÁR programme, which is a very useful scheme. I believe Deputy Ó Cuív set it up himself. It is a great bonus for those rural areas. Rural water really falls under the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. My Department now has responsibility for the LIS. It looks like it is all ours even though I think it should be with another Department.
This is the same scenario. If I start topping up water in rural Ireland, it suddenly becomes my responsibility instead of where that really lies, which is with Irish Water and the rural water schemes. I will have a conversation with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien although I do not know what we can do. Water is funded through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. There are some great water schemes out there. My goodness me, what they have done in rural Ireland has been tremendous.
I agree.
They are still extending the schemes to some parts. Different small grants are available in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to extend the schemes. I am happy to have a conversation with the Minister about it. At the minute, however, the Department of Rural and Community Development has a relatively small budget in comparison to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It would not be unreasonable to ask that Department to look at doing the rural water scheme. I am happy to talk to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, however.
I agree. Having held the Minister's position, one of the dilemmas of being Minister for Rural and Community Development is that it is actually easier and more defined. It is something that affects everybody in rural and urban settings. It is a segment of their lives. Rural people presume it is their life. It reflects all the shortcomings from rural areas.
As the Minister said, in many cases, we suddenly find that it is really in the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and so on. There are different Departments and people come to the Minister. Even rural transport does not come under her Department. I accept that, because I know the dilemma.
The Minister obviously understands the problem, no more than myself. I used a well at one stage and the best day ever was when we got on the group scheme that was connected to the mains, which meant it was taken over and now we have mains water. It was fantastic. It was absolutely brilliant and unbelievable. It is top quality and we do not have to worry about it.
It has great pressure.
There is great pressure because our reservoir is at the top of the mountain.
Speaking of pressure, we are under pressure with time. I have given Deputy Ó Cuív a lot of leniency on this.
The Chairman has done that today. The point I will put to the Minister, however, is that I had a top-up scheme when I held her position. I am not saying it was the best; there was a danger. In fairness, the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, as it was called at the time, kept its grants and I just topped them up.
What I basically did was bring the cost of water to a known figure before works started. The big problem when we start a group water scheme at the moment is that we do not know how much it will cost per house. There is no way to say, for instance, a person puts in €2,000-----
We cannot afford it.
I really would welcome if that conversation could be started. At the end of the day, I would like to hear an announcement by Government; let the Minister announce it and Government pay for it. That would be a good idea. However, I would like to hear an announcement by Government to say it will do an equivalent of the national broadband scheme because now that has proven its worth. Basically, in doing this, Government would put water into every house in the country and finish the job once and for all.
I take the Deputy's point. I had to get a new well only recently so it would be great if we could connect to the mains. I take the Deputy's point, however. I will have a conversation with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and we will see what we can do.
We will move on to the community development programme. I call Deputy Donnelly.
The documentation notes a reduction of €8.5 million. What impact will that have with regard to the budget? The Minister mentioned the SICAP and obviously, there is a small cost-of-living increase. If we were to do the full cost-of-living increase, what increase would be required? Do we have that figure?
I welcome the increase in funding to the Charities Regulator, which will be important. The community centre investment fund was mentioned earlier. It is a really good scheme for which we have been calling for a very long time. I welcome the increase in the funding. A figure of €72 million was sought originally for which people put in the application. It is good to see that we can draw that down over the next few years to get the important work done.
To clarify, is the Deputy saying that there has been a reduction of €8.5 million?
That is what it says in this document.
I will continue while the Deputy is checking. There was a one-off €10 million for the energy support fund, which we no longer have. In usual terms, there is actually an increase, but removing last year's one-off energy support makes it look like a decrease. There was a 10% increase in the SICAP budget in 2022 and a further increase this year. PPN workers will get an increase this year. There is also an increase of €1 million for volunteer centres. It is all going in the right direction. The one-off €10 million for last year just makes it look otherwise.
I am unsure as to whether the Deputy had related questions.
No, that is fine.
Where are we going with the refurbishment grants for community centres? What about the large grants for building new community centres?
It is planned to use the €20 million of the CCIF and €5 million of the community enhancement programme, although the actual scale of the latter programme will depend on the level of demand under the CCIF as the year progresses. The next call under the CCIF will seek to fund new centres where communities have a clear need. The Deputy has raised a particular centre with me. I will be announcing the fund later in the year. It will be for new community centres specifically.
To stop the Department getting a list of wishes ten miles long, I presume that applicants will need to be able to show form in terms of having land, planning permission etc. Otherwise, plenty of projects will be sanctioned but nothing will be happening.
Some of the new centres are ambitious. The applicants will have to have their ducks lined up - they will need to own the land and be ready. A great deal of preparatory work must be done before someone makes an application. The new community centres fund will be coming. Many new communities have developed in urban areas and they have no community centres. The fund will target them. I will be announcing the call for applications later this year. If the Deputy knows of communities that are ready or are thinking about this, he should tell them to start lining up their ducks.
Will there be guidelines as to the maximum amount?
Yes. The other scheme was oversubscribed. Some of the applications were ineligible, but just about anything that was eligible got funding. We know from experience that it will take time for some of the funding to be drawn down from the time communities get contractors to when they get the work done. The new fund will be a rolling fund for a number of years.
We will move on.
I am sorry. I did not realise that the islands would be covered in our discussion on rural development.
The Deputy should be brief.
Has the Minister any idea about when we will see the major capital developments that are needed on the islands progressing? The pier at Inis Oírr is highly dangerous and the pier at Inis Meáin is highly deficient. It seems to be taking forever for construction to start. We are all afraid that, in the case of Inis Oírr, someone will get killed on the pier.
The Deputy has raised this matter with me many times. Regarding Inis Oírr, Galway County Council has received quotes, the gap analysis has been completed and submitted to the Department, and the council is in regular contact with the foreshore unit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has agreed to assist the local authority with mapping the area where the licence is to apply. I understand that a meeting was recently held between council officials and the local community on Inis Oírr to discuss matters relating to work on the pier, including traffic management, training and new by-laws that were recently adopted and had to come into affect for the duration of the pier's development. My Department will continue to engage with the local authority to monitor the development's progress.
The Deputy knows as well as I that this has to be driven at local authority level as well. We are happy to help. Whenever the request comes in, we will be able to manage it. We have made a commitment that we will find the money for these developments, but they have to move through a process that God knows takes a long time.
There is another issue, and Roonagh pier is a classic example of it. If you ask the Department about pier development, it says that pier development is a matter for the local authority. Maybe it is and maybe it is not, and I accept in principle that these are local authority piers, but I presume the Department's islands plan has, after four years, analysed what it believes are the piers it would fund. I also presume that the Department will then communicate to local authorities its belief that there is a deficiency in the pier facilities of islands A, B, C and D and tell them that those facilities need to be upgraded and applications need to be submitted in respect of them. However, the Department seems to be laid back about this at the moment and saying that if local authorities send applications, it might look at them and then decide whether works are needed. In most of these cases, that is self-evident.
To be fair, it must be driven from the ground up. With every scheme, the Department tells people to submit their applications and prioritise what they want. There is an onus on the local authority in this instance to work with the island communities and get the process completed. Our first priority is to progress the projects in the national development plan, NDP, including Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin.
This issue has been ongoing for years. I know that no more than the Deputy. I was out there and could see the difficulties presented by living on islands. The one bit of good news I have for the Deputy is that a model simulation of the harbour at Inis Meáin has been completed, thanks be to God.
Great. Has anyone put a price on it?
I do not see a price in my information, but at least it is finished.
What about the next step? Some islanders have been worried that the price of what has been simulated might be so great that the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform might balk at it if it reaches €100 million. However, we are where we are. Will someone provide a guesstimate of what the project will cost? The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform will have a figure, but will the Department of Rural and Community Development indicate whether it is up for the type of expenditure set out in the model?
I do not know. There is no figure in my information for that. When we send projects out to tender, the tenders sometimes fit the amount of money that is available. The Deputy knows how it is. The price is commercially sensitive.
In the next phase, Galway County Council will start preparing a draft business case based on the findings and data from the simulation for presentation to officials from my Department. If the council prioritises that work, I will not be found wanting in moving the work on. Nor will the Deputy be found wanting in supporting me in that.
Was it "The Banshee of Inis Oírr"?
"The Banshees of Inisherin".
Yes. I have no doubt that film will bring loads of visitors to the islands over the summer. I hope our Irish actors will be very successful on Oscar night, along with the Irish-language film, but as we are talking about the islands, "The Banshees of Inisherin" was filmed on location in the Aran Islands. I have no doubt that it will bring the islands a great deal of attention. What we need are safe ports. That is important.
I thank the Minister. We move to the Charities Regulatory Authority. Do members have any questions on that? They do not. Are there any outstanding questions on the rural affairs budget? I call Deputy Ó Cuív.
Cork is a big county and it is always recognised as being such, in the State. It has three local action groups, LAGs, in it. The advantage of that is they get €3 million start-off money and then money based on the rest of the criteria. Cork is kind of continuous from east Cork to west Cork. There is no very clear dividing line. The second-biggest county is Galway. It has half the island population and it has got an area they call Connemara that is separated completely from the rest of the county by the city and the lake. You could say it is a country in its own right. However, we are treated as one county for the purposes of LEADER funding and we lose out on the second €3 million. The islands were badly let down when they did not get their own LAG. There was bitter disappointment at that. It means loss of jobs on the islands. Keeping people employed on the islands is vital if we want to have a vibrant population and viability in the islands.
There are two delivery agencies for LEADER, one of which is in Connemara and the other in east Galway. They are treated as one for their financial allocation, however, which means that Galway is €3 million short. The problem is that Leitrim - I have nothing against Leitrim; I love Leitrim, and it is a great county - as well as Longford and all these smaller counties, get the €3 million. Nobody amalgamated Cavan and Monaghan, said they are all the one really and let us give one €3 million. I separated them out.
I was going to say. The Deputy is the man who separated them.
I did, and rightly so.
Rightly so is right.
I also separated Connemara from the rest of Galway on the basis of the sheer size of the county and it would be very easy to rectify that. There are two organisations delivering it, namely, FORUM Connemara and Galway Rural Development in the east. Why not give each of them €3 million?
As I understand it, there was only one sub-regional area in Galway but then they decided to divide it up themselves. Is that correct?
The Minister's predecessor had a funny way of doing his business. Against the wishes of most of the people in Galway, certain people in Galway Country Council were persuaded to opt for one sub-regional area. I understand that the council and the Department were the authors of that. There was war and absolute uproar in the county when it happened because everyone was happy with the previous arrangement. What happened was that they jibbed at it and east and west came to an arrangement. Think geographically for a moment. The headquarters of FORUM are located in Clifden and those of Galway Rural Development are in Ballinasloe. You have to try to get around Galway some way. You could not run the whole of Connemara from Ballinasloe. It is not possible. That would be like running Cavan from Monaghan. It would be ten times worse. It would be like running Cavan, Monaghan and Louth together. All we are looking for is that each of those would be recognised as an entity, that they would operate independently and that would each get €3 million. That is it. It is very simple, and it would be easy to put matters to rights. I will not say the Minister knows this because she was not in post when the previous row happened, but there were court cases and everything when they started on this process of trying to slap it all together. It went up to the Court of Appeal. It took the stroke of a pen to give the €3 million and say there are two entities here and always will be, and it was a mistake by the Department. There is nothing wrong in the Department making a mistake, so long as it recognises it and does not perpetuate it.
It is fair to say no funding model is perfect. Galway had €12.2 million in the last programme and it has €12.6 million for the 2023-27 programme, which is an increase of 3.5%. The same argument could be made for another big county like Mayo. All I can tell the Deputy is that last Thursday I announced 46 successful applicants will move to stage 2 and be asked to develop strategies for their relevant areas and make use of €2 million in funding from the Department to do so.
On the islands, an application by Comhar na nOileán to prepare a strategy for the islands off County Galway below the sub-regional level was successful. It will now be funded to develop this strategy along with the 46 other applications. Separately, Comhar na nOileán has been nominated as an implementing partner by the proposed local action groups in the sub-regional areas of Mayo, Donegal and west Cork. Ultimately, these strategies will be selected to deliver the programme across all sub-regional areas and will be determined following consideration of the submitted strategies by an independent selection committee.
I hear what he Deputy is saying about Galway but there is not an awful lot I can do about it. I will talk to the officials but I do not think so, to be very straight with the Deputy.
I thank the Minister and Minister of State and their officials, as well as committee members, for participating in the meeting.
I thank the Chairman.