Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2013
453. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the total amount of rural development funds pursuant to the current round of LEADER funding that was ring fenced to be distributed by Mayo North East Leader Partnership Teo; the amount of the said funding that has been drawn down to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2640/13]
View answerMayo North East Leader Partnership (MNELP) is the Local Action Group contracted by my Department to deliver both the Rural Development Programme (RDP) and the Local Community Development Programme (LCDP) to the North Mayo area. MNELP were originally allocated €10,751,894.00 for the delivery of Axis 3 and 4 (LEADER) of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007-2013 in the Mayo North East area. Implementation of the LEADER elements of the RDP commenced in 2009 and to 31 December 2012 MNELP has registered overall expenditure of €4,388,947.92 which includes both project and administration expenditure.
On the 31 December 2012, MNELP also had overall project activity of €5,764,242.40 which includes project pipeline activity or projects at the early stages of development. Full contractual commitments in MNELP amounted to €4,728,325.24, inclusive of expenditure. In late 2011 the European Commission approved a change in co-funding rates from 55% to 85% for Rural Development Programmes for countries that were part of the Financial Stabilisation Mechanism. Prior to this RDP measures were co-funded at a rate of 55% by the EU, with the remaining 45% coming from national exchequer sources.
The 2011 agreement reduces the national exchequer input to 15% for 2012 and 2013 without a concomitant increase in the amount of funding to be provided by the EU. This has resulted in a reduction in the overall Programme complement from €427m to €314m.
In this context the original funding allocations given to each Local Development Company contracted to deliver the LEADER elements of the RDP are no longer definitive and depend on the capacity of both the groups and their local areas to absorb the available funding within the required timeframes. However, in this context my Department is working closely with Local Development Companies to ensure that any community or individual in any geographical area who is eligible for funding under the RDP will have their applications dealt with in an efficient and effective manner and applications from all geographic areas will be considered equally as long as funding is available.
