Vol. 418 No. 4
188 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will make a statement outlining the way in which the £10.5 million, that has been allocated by the European Commission recently for the further eight Leader projects in Ireland, is to be spent.
Leader is the EC Commission's initiative on rural development. As already announced, funding is being provided for 16 Irish Leader groups to implement the business plans drawn up by them for their areas.
Under the Leader programme, investment in the following activities may be undertaken by the groups technical support for rural development, e.g. surveys, assessments; vocational training and assistance for recruitment; rural tourism; small firms, craft enterprises, local services; development and marketing of local agricultural, forestry and fishery products and other activities which contribute to the development of the area.
The essential element of Leader is that, while public funding is provided for the groups, decisions on individual projects to be aided are a matter for the groups themselves.
