James Leonard
Ceist:38 Mr. Leonard asked the Minister for Finance if he proposes to match from Exchequer funding the £13 million from the European Commission to the EU Leader II scheme. [15695/95]
Written Answers. - Leader II Scheme.
I assume that the Deputy is referring to the press release of 4 October 1995 from the European Commission which gave details of the Commission decision on the allocation of the reserve for Community Initiatives through to 1999. The Commission is now in the process of notifying the European Parliament and the member states of these allocations and it is likely that the indicative amount of 16.05 MECU (about £12.8m) for Leader II for Ireland will be confirmed. Matching funding for Leader projects is provided by the Exchequer and by private sources. The necessary Exchequer funding to ensure the full utilisation of this additional EU funding will be forthcoming over the life of the programme.