Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1195. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the breakdown between total funds expended on administration costs and the total amount on project costs on the Leader programme in each year of the 2014-2020 rural development programme and to date in 2018. [36936/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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LEADER is a multi-annual programme for the period 2014-2020 and has a total budget of €250 million over that period. Table 1 below details the expenditure incurred in each of the years 2015 to 2017, and to date in 2018. This expenditure relates to:

- the cost incurred by the Local Action Groups (LAGs), who administer the programme, in preparing and developing their Local Development Strategies,

- the administration costs of the LAGs and the costs of their engagement with communities to generate projects; and,

- expenditure incurred on projects. 

The level of project activity under the LEADER programme has increased significantly in recent months, and 1,265 projects have now been approved for funding to a value of almost €38.4 million.  A further 335 project applications with a combined value in excess of €20 million are at various stages in the approval process.

I expect the level of expenditure on projects to increase substantially in the coming months as these projects are implemented and the promoters submit claims for payment.

Table 1: LEADER 2014-2020 Expenditure by year as of 4^thSeptember 2018