Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree that really wonderful work is being done in counties such as Roscommon where LEADER partnerships are doing a great deal of excellent work, whether in job creation, development or sustaining current jobs. It represents massive amounts of funding for enterprise and boosting tourism. They have done a lot for the county, as have partnerships across the State. LEADER, in particular, has a really important role to play.

The Minister is probably aware of an issue that has arisen in a number of counties whereby for that transitional period, funding is almost gone or has been allocated for this year and they have no funding left for next year. That is an issue. We need to look at the level of funding the Government is putting up in relation to the CAP fund. It is not enough to stand still at the €250 million allocation from 2021 to 2027. We have to consider that it is a huge drop from that 2007 to 2013 period when we were looking at an allocation of €425 million. I gave the example of Roscommon. There is a big difference between €11 million and €6 million over the fairly lengthy period covered by this LEADER programme. I ask that the Minister, at the very least, looks at the ILDN proposal.

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