Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The LEADER programme has played a crucial role in rural development, especially in addressing and developing the rural community. It has, therefore, been a regressive move that LEADER has faced cuts in every programme for nearly 20 years. Prior to the financial crisis, the annualised budget for the LEADER programme between 2007 to 2013 was €57 million per year, reducing to €54 million post the crash. The annual allocation for the 2014 to 2020 programme was slashed by one third to €35 million. The Government signed off on a transition programme of €35 million to €36 million on average per year for 2023 to 2027. That is not only a cut in real terms. Taking account of inflation, LEADER funding must stand at half of what it once was. My question again is: does the Minister accept that the LEADER budget has been gutted and what can he do about it?

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