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Rural Development.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 January 2005

Wednesday, 26 January 2005

Questions (538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544)

Brian O'Shea

Question:

601 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals to ensure that enterprise support mechanisms in rural areas allow those areas to compete successfully for enterprise development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34316/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

602 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals to ensure that there are multidimensional policies for rural areas which recognise that a total dependence on agriculture will not sustain the population in rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34317/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

603 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals in regard to rural development policy to serve the needs of broader society in rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34318/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

604 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals regarding rural development policy being implemented in partnership between public and private organisation and civil society in line with the principle of subsidiarity. [34319/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

605 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the progress to date regarding the necessary and urgent need for a significant simplification of EU rural development policy in order that delivery is based on one programming, financing and control system tailored to the needs of rural development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34320/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

606 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals to give more responsibility to programme partnerships in rural development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34321/04]

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Brian O'Shea

Question:

613 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his proposals to concentrate rural spending on non-farming investment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1360/05]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 601 to 606, inclusive, and 613 together.

Current policy on rural development is set out in the White Paper on rural development, Ensuring the Future, published in 1999. Over five years later, while there has been significant change in rural areas and indeed throughout the country, the vision of the long-term future of Irish rural society articulated in the White Paper remains the core of rural development policy. The vehicle for delivering the commitments in the White Paper is the national development plan, supplemented by other programmes and measures such as CLÁR and the rural social scheme. Other policy statements and studies, such as the national spatial strategy and the recent Agri Vision 2015 report, help to refine, update and strengthen rural development policy.

An Agreed Programme for Government of June 2002 contained a commitment to giving a clear priority to the protection and development of rural communities. My appointment as a Minister with responsibility for rural development was, and continues to be, the clearest sign of the Government's intentions in that regard.

We need to continue to focus on the fact that some 40% of the population live in rural areas, the majority of whom are not farmers. Consequently, in view of the time that has elapsed since the publication of the White Paper, I am currently considering the desirability of restating our rural development priorities for the coming period. I am heartened that, at EU level, the Commission's thinking on rural development policy, contained in the proposals in the draft regulation on rural development, reflects a positive and strategic vision on the future of rural areas, including farm and non-farming dimensions. The provisions of that regulation relevant to my Department include measures aimed directly at developing basic services in rural areas, supporting small business creation and providing employment opportunities locally. Simplification is an issue which I will be pursuing in the context of negotiations on the draft regulation.

In my address to the National Rural Development Forum in Athlone on 17 January, I identified the key challenge for Ireland as striking the correct balance between financial on-farm support and off-farm economic opportunity. Therefore, we must ask ourselves some hard questions. For example, we must ask whether rural prosperity can best be promoted through focusing the vast majority of the spend on direct farm investment or whether the development of a diversified rural economy and a consequent increase in spend on non-farming investment is the way forward. Allowing for the significant decline in full-time farming and for enhanced educational attainments of our children, it seems that the development of a diversified rural economy is essential.

The total indicative fund available to support rural development during the period 2007 to 2013, subject to budgetary agreement later this year, is almost €96 billion for the whole EU. Due to the increasing prosperity of the country as a whole it will be very difficult to secure as favourable a financial package for Ireland this time around as was secured in respect of the last rural development programme for the period 2000 to 2006. However, together with my colleague the Minister for Agriculture and Food, we will negotiate the best financial deal possible for rural areas.

On enterprise support, the review of enterprise support in rural areas was launched at the recent National Rural Development Forum in Athlone. I, in consultation with my colleagues, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, will now consider how best to advance recommendations in the report, as appropriate. The formulation of the current proposals for EU rural development policy was heavily influenced by the need to meet the targets set in the Lisbon Agenda which aims to make the European Union the most competitive, knowledge-based world economy by 2010. Commissioner Fischer Boel has recently reinforced this central truth stating that "a market oriented CAP and a growth oriented rural development policy are potentially central elements in the Commission's main political priority of promoting the Lisbon Agenda". Accordingly, the socio-economic rural development axis of the draft EU regulation includes provision for the diversification of the rural economy through, for example, the creation of micro-enterprises and rural tourism. I will of course be paying particular attention to this in the negotiations.

The partnership approach in rural development programmes, principally LEADER, are well-established at this stage. The boards of the groups are tripartite in structure, comprising representatives of the local community and development associations, private sector business interests and the local state agencies, including county council representatives. There are 35 local action groups and three national bodies involved in the delivery of LEADER and they cover all rural areas. The budget for the Leader+ and area-based rural development initiatives is almost €150 million for the period 2000 to 2006.

The CLÁR programme, which I initiated in 2001, is also contributing to the development of the most disadvantaged rural areas. It is targeted at areas which have suffered the greatest population decline. This programme co-ordinates existing sources of public and private finance and provides additional stimulus funding for small scale economic and social infrastructure to help rural communities overcome local difficulties and improve the provision of essential services such as water supply, sewerage disposal, local road access and broadband communication.

The programme has vividly demonstrated that small amounts of public funding, specifically targeted, can have a profound and positive impact in disadvantaged rural areas. Expenditure under the programme amounted to €14.14 million in 2002, €8.613 million in 2003 and €12.116 million in 2004. It is estimated that this levered out a further €36 million in related public and private expenditure in those three years. The provision in the Estimates for 2005 is €13.2 million, representing a 9% increase over the 2004 outturn.

While much has been achieved since the publication of the White Paper, I am not complacent. The improvement of the economic and social condition of rural communities will continue to be a priority for me, especially in the context of the critical negotiations now in progress at EU level.

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