Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1361. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the approvals to date by each local action group of funding for projects under the Leader programme; the amount of expenditure to date on projects by local action group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15567/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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LEADER is a multi-annual EU co-funded programme to support rural development.  Ireland has an allocation of €250 million under the programme over the period 2014-2020, including both national and EU funding.  The programme is administered by Local Action Groups (LAGs) which deliver funding in accordance with Local Development Strategies that have been agreed for each LAG area.

As of 15 April, 2018, 900 projects with a value of over €26.2 million have been approved for LEADER funding by the LAGs. A further 285 projects requesting over €16.1 million in funding are at various stages in the approval process. This funding will be drawn down as projects start to incur expenditure and submit payment claims.

Project payments amounting to €1,530,538.65have been made up to April 15^th2018.

A breakdown of project approvals and project expenditure by each Local Action Group is provided at Appendix 1.

While the pace of approvals varies between Local Action Groups, I am confident that the progress made by the LAGs going forward in 2018, along with the administrative improvements which my Department introduced last year, will result in a significant increase in project approvals and payments under the LEADER programme over the coming months.

Appendix 1: Project Approvals and Payments as of 15^thApril 2018.