Progress on Childcare Centre funds

Funds embargo partially liftedThe embargo on finalising Leader funding for rural development projects which had recently stalled the planned Community Childcare Centre for Kilcullen was partially lifted yesterday, writes Brian Byrne, reviving hopes that it will soon be able to go ahead.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has released €90m from the funds which had been affected pending his department's review of such projects following a cut in the level of EU funding to the Leader programme.

According to local FG TD Martin Heydon, the move means that projects such as the Centre, which are 'in queue', can now be moved on. In a communication last night to the project promoters, he said that the Kilcullen project should now be able to go from a meeting of the Kildare Leader Partnership next week to consideration for ministerial approval.

"It's not possible to anticipate what queries the Department could have at that stage but I understand from Kildare Leader that they feel the substantive issues are well covered and that any queries should only be of a nature that would be relatively easy and quick to respond to," Deputy Heydon says. "Hopefully we are back on track now." He assured the promoters of his continued support should any problems emerge in the coming weeks.

In late 2011 the European Commission approved a change in the maximum co-funding rate from 55 percent to 85 percent for the Leader elements of Ireland's Rural Development Programme. This reduced the overall contribution of the Exchequer to the programme in relative terms, but also meant a net reduction in the overall budget, as the actual cash contribution from the Commission will not increase. 

In February 2013 the Department placed an embargo on project approvals as these changes meant that the original project allocations given to each Local Development Company (LDC) required readjustment. The Department has now completed the rebalancing exercise and the minister yesterday authorised the issuing of contracts for approximately €42 million worth of projects which have all the necessary approvals in place. 

The Minister has given two weeks to the Local Development Companies to let the Department know whether all of these €42m worth of projects are ready to proceed or not. The balance of the funding will be allocated among the LDCs once that information is in.