Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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999. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when funding will be provided once again to Leader programmes across the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38429/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The 2014-2020 LEADER programme is due to finish at the end of this year as far as new project commitments are concerned. Due to delays in agreeing the post-2020 EU Budget, the next EU LEADER programme will not commence until 2022 at the earliest.

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.? The objective of this Transitional Programme is to allow locally-led rural development projects to continue to be delivered using the LEADER model until the new EU programme commences.

An extra €4 million has been provided for LEADER in Budget 2021, to bring the total allocation for next year to €44 million. This allocation will be used to fund a combination of existing projects as they come to completion, as well as for new projects to be approved under the Transitional Programme and to support the administration costs of LAGs in closing out the existing programme and delivering the Transitional Programme.

It is important to recognise that LEADER is a multi-annual programme and that payments in respect of projects which are approved in any given year are generally not drawn down until subsequent years as the projects are completed. Therefore, costs related to projects under the Transitional Programme are likely to be met from the provision in my Department’s Vote in 2022 and 2023, as well as in 2021.

The Transitional Programme is currently being finalised and I hope to be in a position shortly to announce the full details of project and administration allocations under the Programme.