Companies await LEADER funding

FUNDING for the LEADER programme has still not been delivered to the integrated local development companies, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association said yesterday.

Describing the delay as alarming, ICMSA rural development committee chairman John O’Donnell said it was almost a year since the rural development programme was agreed in Brussels.

He called on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv to step up efforts to allocate the funding to the companies ready to deliver the programme.