Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The interim money up until now has always been purely administrative money to keep the staff in place. There was a certain expectation this time that Exchequer moneys would be provided to ensure projects could be approved in the two years. It will be two years before LEADER gets going. Even if the CAP is theoretically ready to rock and roll in 2022, it will not be the case with LEADER.

If one looks at the pattern of LEADER expenditure, it will be at a peak now and for the next year. Then, when the new programme starts in 2023, there will be little expenditure until two or three years into the programme. As the Minister knows, €40 million a year will be given to it, there will be underspends, and surpluses will be used for better purposes.

Some people had hoped that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would accept that we should just level off the money by providing Exchequer funding for the interim period. If one were sanctioning programmes in 2021 and 2022, they would not become due until 2023 and 2024, which is a fallow period for money demands in the Department. In other words, one takes the European money when it comes but when it is not there, one provides Exchequer funding. That is what most people expect should happen from now on, particularly because of the massive hit rural Ireland has taken during the pandemic.