Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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367. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which applications have been made under the LEADER programme by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34471/20]

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 is allocated to Local Action Groups (LAGs), who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level in accordance with their Local Development Strategy (LDS). The LAG areas are, for the most part, aligned with county boundaries.

The balance of €25 million is provided for thematic projects which are approved at national level.

As of 1^stNovember 2020, 3,530 core projects with a value of over €139 million have been approved for LEADER funding by the LAGs. A further 341 projects requesting over €21 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.

In addition, over 200 applications under the thematic schemes of the LEADER Food Initiative and Co-operation projects have been approved at national level, outside of the core budget available to the LAGs.

Table 1 below shows the number and value of core projects approved by LAG area as of the 1^stNovember 2020.

Details of all projects approved under LEADER on a county-by-county basis and the funding allocated to them are available on my Department’s website at:

Table 1: The number and value of core projects approved by LDS area as of the 1^stNovember 2020