Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 11 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 5

Written Answers. - Task Force Report.

Cecilia Keaveney

Ceist:

112 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development his views in relation to recommendation 1.3.11 of the Donegal task force initiative report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23084/99]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh):

I am aware of these recommendations in the Donegal task force report. The proposals contained in the new national development plan in relation to agriculture and rural development relate mainly to: (i) on-farm capital investment, waste management, animal welfare, dairy hygiene; (ii) alternative enterprises, on and off-farm; (iii) local rural development type measures, including rural tourism, small scale food processing etc.; and (iv) CAP guarantee funded measures, namely, REPS, early retirement and compensatory allowances.

The major schemes at (i) above will operate nationally under the proposed productive investment inter-regional operational programme with the rural development-alternative enterprise type measures at (ii) and (iii) above operating in the two regional programmes, namely, for the Border, midland and western region, including Donegal, and the southern and eastern region. As regards the measures at (iv) they will be operated under a CAP rural development programme.

From an administrative aspect, the national schemes will be operated, as heretofore, by my Department. However, in relation to locally operated rural development programmes, the recommendation of the task force on the integration of local government and local development systems, that Leader and the area partnerships be delivered by a single agency at local level has already been accepted by the Government. It is not planned to allocate funds for the above measures on a specific county basis but farmers and rural dwellers in County Donegal will benefit under the proposed measures as appropriate.