Brendan Smith
Ceist:755. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when the new Leader programmes will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30080/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 16 July 2015
Ceisteanna (755)
Freagraí scríofa
As the Deputy will be aware, Ireland is conducting a two stage process for the selection of Local Development Strategies to support the delivery of the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme for the 2014-2020 programme period.
Under stage one of the selection process, any entity who wished to be considered as a Local Action Group was invited to submit an expression of interest. For the purposes of the new programme, there are 28 sub-regional areas in Ireland and 45 separate expressions of interest were received. A single expression of interest was received in 19 of the 28 areas and at least 2 expressions of interest were received in the remaining 9 areas.
I established an Independent Evaluation Committee to evaluate the expressions of interest received. The Evaluation Committee recently met and the following is the outcome of this stage of the process. Of the 45 expressions of interest received, 1 was formally withdrawn before assessment. Of the remaining 44, 42 met the minimum criteria and the Evaluation Committee decided that these should proceed to the next stage of the process, which is the preparation of Local Development Strategies for their areas. Those who were successful in this process have been notified and have been invited to attend workshops and presentations in Tullamore, Co. Offaly this morning. The purpose of the event is to set out in detail what is expected in terms of the content and quality of Local Development Strategies.
A minimum of 6 months will be allowed for the preparation of Local Development Strategies. However, I expect that not all areas will require the full 6 months to prepare their strategies. Indeed, I am hopeful that many areas will have their strategies approved and be in a position to begin delivery on the ground by Autumn 2015.
In areas where a single strategy is submitted, the Evaluation Committee will review and evaluate these strategies with a view to ensuring that the strategies meet the required standard. In areas where entities do not come to an agreement and multiple strategies are submitted, it will be a matter for the Evaluation Committee to make a decision on which Local Development Strategy best meets the needs of the community. In this situation, the Evaluation Committee will not make a decision on the successful strategy until all strategies for that sub-regional area have been submitted for assessment.