IFA at odds with Leader over share of development programme funding
The Irish Local Development Network, which represents LDCs in Ireland, is asking for 10%. The IFA has suggested 5% of the €660m annual RDP budget be directed towards Leader companies.
The ILDN has approached both Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to urge that they secure 10% of the RDP budget for Leader.
ILDN chairman John Walsh said: “The current Leader programme has been shown to be very successful in supporting rural communities and enterprises, successfully committing its €370m budget in full to projects by the end of last year. In fact, many more projects remain in the pipeline as there were not enough funds available to commit to them.”
He added it is important that the momentum demonstrated by Leader LDCs is not lost. The current Leader programme finishes at the end of this year.
The EU has made advance funding available to member states to help the Leader groups plan for the next Leader programme, which should start early in 2015, said Mr Walsh.
“The EU has indicated that an effective planning process for a local Leader strategy should take between six and 12 months,” said Mr Walsh. “It is critical that the department makes this preparatory funding available to the 35 existing Leader groups as soon as possible to facilitate commencement work on preparing local development strategies for 2015-2020 in a timely manner.”
Meanwhile, IFA rural development chairman Flor McCarthy said IFA has sought 5% of a €660m annual RDP budget for Leader, after the deduction for the reserve. This would represent €33m per year, or €231m over the lifetime of the new RDP.
If the Government falls short on the IFA proposal, then the Leader figure will have to be reduced proportionally, said Mr McCarthy.
Rural development policy is mainly driven by farmers and the importance of agri-environment schemes, Disadvantaged Areas, and on-farm investment programme for all sectors of farming is vital to achieve Food Harvest 2020 targets.
