Warnings of job losses if councils get control of local enterprise funds

Rural jobs will be lost and anti-poverty initiatives will suffer, if local authorities are given control of local enterprise funding, the IFA and the Irish Local Development Network have jointly warned.

Network chairman John Walsh has urged the Government to reconsider its plans to transfer control of LEADER and the Local Community Development Programme funding to local authorities through the newly formed Local Community Development Committees.

The network and the IFA have joined forces to voice their concerns over the lack of clarity surrounding the future delivery of the next round of the Rural Development Programme (LEADER) by local development companies.