Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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16. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development her plans for the LEADER programme in 2021 and 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34083/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The EU-funded LEADER programme has been in operation since 1991 and, since then, it has supported thousands of community-led projects here in Ireland and throughout the EU.

Under Ireland's current LEADER progamme, €168.7 million was allocated to Local Action Groups for project approvals over the lifetime of the programme.

At the end of October, there were over 3,500 projects approved by the LAGs, to a value of over €139 million. A further 341 projects requesting more than €21 million in funding are at various stages in the approval process.

The current LEADER programme comes to an end this year as far as new project approvals are concerned. The Programme for Government includes a commitment to prioritise a State-led programme to bridge the gap between the current LEADER programme and the next EU programme, which will not commence until 2022 at the earliest.

The objective of this commitment is to allow rural development projects to continue to be delivered under a Transitional Programme, using the LEADER model, until the new EU programme commences.

The design, duration and composition of the Transitional Programme is currently being finalised and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement shortly, outlining the details of the programme which will come into effect in 2021.