Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Leader funding is delivered through local action groups, LAGs, in each of the 28 Leader sub-regional areas around the country. Leader has a budget of €250 million over the period to 2020 and €220 million of this total has been allocated to the LAGs for the delivery of their local development strategies. The amount of funding which is available for projects, as outlined in the strategies developed by the LAGs, is €164.5 million. The remainder of the €220 million covers the administration costs of the LAGs and their engagement with communities to generate projects.

An additional €30 million is available for Leader schemes which will be delivered at a national level. These are at an early stage of delivery. As of 31 December 2017, almost 600 projects were approved for funding of over €16.4 million. This accounted for 10% of the funding available for projects - €164.5 million - in the strategies developed by the LAGs. As the Deputy will appreciate, these projects need to be implemented before they can submit payment claims and draw down funding.

The pace of project approvals has increased substantially in recent months in line with the historic cycle of Leader delivery. To date, over 900 projects with a total value of almost €27 million have been approved for Leader funding by the LAGs representing over 16% of the project funding outlined in the LAG strategies. A further 320 projects with a value of €17.7 million are within the approvals process. On the basis of the continuing increase in the level of project approvals, together with administrative improvements to Leader which my Department introduced over the last year, I anticipate a significant increase in Leader project expenditure in 2018.

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