THE EUROPEAN Commission is to be asked to allow the transfer of rural development funding to other departments in a move which could create up to 700 new jobs.
The issue will be taken up next Friday with the agriculture and rural development commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, when he pays a formal visit here.
His portfolio covers the rural development area for which €424 million has been set aside for Ireland for the period 2009-2013.
Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey confirmed yesterday that the Government was seeking to move some of that money from the Leader programme to other departments.
“The money is there and it is for job creation in rural areas and there is a need for funding in other departments and we will be seeking commission approval to do that,” he said.
“There is a high level of jobs approved by county enterprise boards across the country but they do not have the money to put the people to work.”
Mr Carey said the figure could be as high as 700 jobs and they were attempting to find a way to get money from the rural development funds so this could happen.
He would be approaching the commission with Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe, to get the initiative moving.
He said the rural development programmes were working well and it was estimated since their inception that they had created 12,500 jobs.
“There is a review of the programme ongoing and we will have more information on exactly how the programme has worked following that.”
There had been criticism of the low level of activity in the rural development programme but the Minister said that in the past 10 days, more than €5 million in approvals had been sanctioned for projects across the State.
Mr Carey also said he would be seeking €40 million next year to meet the demand from the sector which was vibrant and had sparked off hundreds of ventures, mainly in the agri-food and tourism areas.
“Rural development activists are people of courage who are determined to do something for themselves and their communities and it is working very well,” he said.
The Leader rural development programme was piloted by the European Union in Ireland some 20 years ago based on voluntary groups who drove rural development and community-based enterprises.