Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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924. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated cost in 2021 if the budget for the community facilities scheme increased by 40%. [24020/20]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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In 2018, the Community Enhancement Programme (CEP) was launched. The CEP replaced the re-cast RAPID programme and the Communities Facilities Scheme which operated up to the end of 2017. The CEP had a budget of €4.5m in 2020.

A 40% increase in this budget would result in a requirement for funding of €6.3m in 2021.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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925. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if funding unspent in an initiative (details supplied) will be reallocated to other measures such as community facilities with LEADER; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24131/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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LEADER is a multi-annual programme with a budget of €250 million over the period 2014-2020. €225 million of this budget was allocated at the outset of the programme to Local Action Groups (LAGs) who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level. The balance of €25 million is provided for thematic projects and is allocated at national level once the projects have been approved by the LAGs.

The initiative referred to by the Deputy is one of the national thematic schemes funded under the programme. It is an important scheme which can be particularly helpful to companies in the current challenging operating environment. There are no proposals at present to reallocate any of this funding to the LAGs for community type projects.