Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The 2014-2020 LEADER programme had a total allocation of €250 million. €225 million of this budget was allocated directly to the Local Action Groups (LAGs) who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level. This funding was allocated to the LAGs for the programming period rather than on an annual basis to give them greater flexibility to manage their budgets. The balance of €25 million is provided for thematic projects which are approved at national level.

In December 2020, I launched the Transitional LEADER Programme, which came into effect from 1 April 2021 and will run to the end of 2022. A total of €70 million has been made available over this programming period. €65 million of this budget has been allocated to LAGs who deliver the programme and approve projects at local level. A further €3 million of the funding has been allocated to support Co-operation projects and innovation between LAGs, while the remaining €2 million is being provided to support strategy development for the next LEADER programme.

Table 1below provides details of the LAG allocations for the 2014-2020 and Transitional LEADER Programmes.

The new LEADER programme will commence in 2023. I recently announced the indicative allocation for the new LEADER programme of €180m. Taken together with the €70m secured for the transitional programme this gives a total funding allocation of €250m programming period from 2021- 2027 maintaining funding at the level provided for the 2014-2020 period.

Table 1: Funding Allocations for the 2014-2020 and 2021-2022 Transitional LEADER Programmes