Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, Ireland has received an allocation from the EU of €2.1 billion for the rural development programme for 2014 to 2020. The EU regulations provide for a 5% minimum allocation for Leader. The Government has decided to increase this to 7% and I welcome this. Therefore, €153 million in EU funding will be available for Leader and this will be co-financed by Exchequer funding.

Ireland is required to submit a draft rural development programme to the European Commission for approval and it is intended that this will be submitted later this year by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which has overall responsibility for the programme. The Leader elements of the programme will primarily address priority six of the Union priorities for rural development: promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas. In this context my Department held a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on the Leader elements of the programme on 30 January and will be holding an open public consultation meeting on Thursday, 6 February in Tullamore.  These consultations, along with the report of the commission for the economic development of rural areas, which I will publish shortly, will inform the draft Leader programme to be submitted to the European Commission as part of the rural development programme.

The Exchequer co-financing element is currently subject to discussions between my Department, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and following the conclusion of these discussions, I will announce the overall value of the Leader elements of the programme. Following approval by the Commission, my Department will make an open call for submission of local development strategies with a view to allocations being made in the second half of this year and the new Leader programme commencing in early 2015.

See this speech in context