Following yesterday’s announcement by Minister Alan Kelly and Minister of State Ann Phelan of €250 million in Rural Development Funding under the LEADER Programme, the Green Party has hit out at the structures set up by his predecessor Phil Hogan, and continued by Kelly, to distribute the funding. The Party claims that the Government is attempting to politicise the distribution of state money by insisting that Local Authorities will become the default vehicle for delivery of the new LEADER funding under the Rural Development Programme (RDP) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

 

Green Party Environment Spokesperson Cllr Malcolm Noonan said today: "LEADER I and II have been immensely successful in tackling rural isolation, economic disadvantage and environmental degradation, and that success is down to the hard work of Local Development Companies. Under the new local government structures, the Local Community Development Committees will be given the power to distribute funding as the Local Action Group (LAG), but both Minister Kelly and Phil Hogan failed to include the Local Development Companies in planning the implementation of the new scheme.

 

"While many members of the public will see the government's headline spin, the reality is that many LDCs, including ours here in Kilkenny (County Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (CKLP)), have had to put their staff on protective notice due to the uncertainty of the funding programme, and a failure to allow an open process where they could tender for LAG status on a parity with Local Authorities. 

 

"I have no doubt that some LDCs will fold under this pressure, while others will have to lay off staff due to a failure to secure the lead role in distributing the fund. This is despite the fact that the EU has held Ireland up as a model for community-led development, and the ‘bottom up’ approach as espoused in the LEADER Programme. What we will get now are local authorities without the experience in delivering rural development programmes, without the necessary staff skills, and without sufficient staff to deliver the programme. We are facing into a situation where resources will be distributed by local politicians looking after their preferred areas and basing their decisions on clientelism instead of need.

 

Cllr Noonan said that Minister Kelly has once again displayed the arrogance of his predecessor by not offering clarity to local authorities and LDCs. He said that many of the so-called 'participative structures' that Phil Hogan brought in under his reform programme will not work, and uptake of membership from many social partners and the community and voluntary sector is very poor. 

 

Cllr Noonan continued: "The structures that Phil Hogan set up to deliver the rural development programme are not in place and may not function for some time. In the meantime, the wealth of experience and community relations built up under the two LEADER programmes is going to be lost, all for political expediency."

 

 

The Green Party will host an event ‘Communities at the Crossroads’ on Friday night March 27th at the opening of their annual convention in Set Theatre, Kilkenny. This public meeting will address the new rural development LEADER Programme and new local government structures.

Event page: www.facebook.com/events/440602079427741/