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

The overall funding package for the Leader elements of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 will be €250 million. While the EU regulations stipulate that a minimum of 5% of the rural development programme is allocated to Leader, Ireland has decided to increase its proportion to 7%. This confirms the Government’s firm commitment to the economic development of rural areas. The €250 million incorporates €15 million for two agrifood measures which will be delivered via Leader. The draft rural development programme will be submitted by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, which is the managing authority for the programme, to the European Commission for consideration and approval in the coming weeks. Following this, my Department will conduct a two-stage process to select local development strategies providing the opportunity to develop partnerships with full and comprehensive consultation, thus maintaining the integrity of a community-led local development approach.

My Department will issue an open call inviting all entities that meet the eligibility criteria to be considered as local action groups to express an interest in being selected to develop local development strategies for the 2014 to 2020 programme. The eligibility criteria will be drawn up in such a way as to ensure that the best local action groups possible are selected to develop strategies, including conformity with EU requirements in terms of local action group make-up, capacity to undertake the work and financial capacity to deliver the programme. It is intended to select a single strategy in each area and therefore in cases where more than one strategy is submitted, the groups involved will be asked to come together in partnership to jointly prepare and agree a single strategy in order to ensure that the most comprehensive and coherent strategies come forward for consideration and approval by my Department. I expect that the programme will be operational in early 2015.

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