South West Mayo Development Company chairman Michael Biggins has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan, that LEADER programme funding is to be released. The programme was embargoed since February 7 while Department officials conducted an audit of the level of project activity in all the local development companies. Reductions to the rate of co-funding meant that the original project allocations given to each local development company needed to be reduced.
In late 2011 the European Commission approved a change in the maximum co-funding rate from 55 per cent to 85 per cent for the LEADER elements of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme. While this reduced the overall contribution of the exchequer to the programme, it also meant a reduction in the overall budget, as the actual cash contribution from the Commission did not increase.
While welcoming the announcement, Mr Biggins commented: “However, this embargo has prevented South West Mayo Development Company from issuing contracts to over 50 project applicants. In addition, the €42 million worth of projects referred to by the Minister are projects already approved by the boards of companies around the country, in some cases for many months. We have three projects approved by the board for quite some time, but because the grants will exceed €150,000, the Department has to endorse them, and they are held up by the failure of the Department to do so. The three projects are Murrisk Holiday Hostel, Westport Town Hall, and Cong Community Centre.”
The board of South West Mayo Development Company is still not able to approve the 50 plus waiting projects until the Department actually informs the company what the revised allocation is. This will not be issued until the week of May 13. Mr Biggins concluded by stating: “When the company get the go-ahead we will have to examine all projects and if the funding is less than the demand, we have a plan in place to ensure that the best projects with the highest impact are prioritised.”
All South West Mayo Development Company project promoters affected by this are being updated.
