Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste is taking some figures and telling me that €250 million is available in the programme, but when one takes the yearly average over seven years, the average annual allocation in the proposed CAP will be €36 million. In 2014 to 2020, it was €50 million per annum. The Tánaiste said he is including the two transition years so it is a seven-year span. Effectively, we are in reduction mode. What will that mean? It will mean that rural communities will be deprived of critical capacity-building supports and funding for vital enterprise, tourism and community-led projects. More than 5,000 projects have been supported in the most recent programme period. Weaker communities and certain groups will be left behind, including youth, women, older people and many social enterprises, which LEADER has been able to support to date. We need to look at the figures of how much will be given per annum over the next five years.

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