Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe that the LEADER programme is adequately funded. LEADER complements all the other funding programmes. It is about people working together. That is where we get the results. The Deputy mentioned the Border. Not alone do we have the regional enterprise development fund, we have the Border enterprise development fund, which is specifically for the Border region because of the impacts of Brexit. That is run by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The local enterprise offices do great work with businesses. We want to see joined-up thinking between LEADER, the local authorities, the local enterprise offices, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, who should all work together. At the end of the day, we want to see more jobs and more investment through different schemes in rural Ireland.

Sligo local action group, LAG, which was mentioned by the Deputy, was allocated €2.2 million under the transitional programme, of which nearly €1.7 million will be allocated for new projects. To date, Sligo LAG has allocated approximately 29% or almost €500,000. To be fair, we are halfway through this, so we would like to see it at the 50% mark towards the end of this year, but it is doing okay at 29%, which is about the average. Some LEADER programmes are looking for more money but have only spent a fraction of what they have got already.

See this speech in context