Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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867. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if he is satisfied with the level of drawdown under the LEADER programme in County Meath. [30599/19]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The LEADER programme is administered in County Meath by the Meath Local Action Group (LAG). The LAG is the Meath Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) in partnership with Meath County Council and Meath Partnership CLG. The total amount of funding allocated to the county for the duration of the LEADER Programme is in excess of €6.9 million.

To-date, 50 projects with a combined grant value of over €2.1 million have been approved by the LAG. This amounts to almost 43% of its project budget. A further 11 projects, with a value of €669,806, are at an earlier stage of the approvals process.

Claims totalling €288,898 have been paid for projects in County Meath. Project payments will increase as project works are completed and claims for payment are submitted by the project promoters.

As advised previously, my Department has reviewed the delivery of the programme with the Meath LAG and explored implementation issues with all of the delivery partners in Meath. Following on from this review, the LAG has stated that at least 80% of the project budget available in Meath will be allocated by the end of 2019. This would be consistent with the objectives of the programme nationally and I will continue to monitor the achievement of this target in the coming months.