Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1996. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated full-year cost of establishing an island-specific local action group and allocating the maximum monthly LEADER funding to the group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28949/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development launched last year which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy. It is a multi-annual programme for rural development co-funded by the EU through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The programme is based on a community-led approach to rural development and plays an important role in supporting communities and enterprises in progressing job creation, social inclusion and environmental projects at local level.

Preparations for the design and delivery of the next LEADER programme from 2023-2027 are well underway and there is ongoing engagement between my officials, colleagues from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and the EU Commission with a view to obtaining approval for the CAP Strategic Plan as a matter of priority.

€250m has been made available for LEADER for the period 2021 to 2027. This is comprised of €70 million for the transitional period 2021 to 2022 which came into effect on 1 April 2021 and an additional €180 million from 2023 to 2027.  This level of funding is evidence of the Government’s continued support for the LEADER programme.

The question of funding allocations and administrative structures for the delivery of the programme, including those relating to the islands, will be considered as part of that work, having regard to the provisions of the EU Regulations governing the structure of future Local Action Groups.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1997. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated full-year cost of increasing LEADER funding by 10%. [28950/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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LEADER is a multi-annual EU programme which has a total budget of €250 million over the 7 year programming period 2014-2020.  In December 2020, I launched the Transitional LEADER Programme, which came into effect on 1st April 2021 and will run to the end of 2022. A total of €70 million is being made available over this programming period.  

An indicative allocation of €180m has been made available for the period 2023 to 2027. When taken together with the €70 million allocated for 2021 and 2022 the LEADER programme will maintain the same level of funding from the 2014-2020 period. This allocation of €250 million shows the Government’s continued support for the LEADER programme. 

Activity under the LEADER programme fluctuates on a year-to-year basis depending on the demand for funding, the level of project approvals made by the LAGs, and the stage of the programme’s lifecycle. 

There are, therefore, a number of different components to the LEADER funding which have a greater or lesser emphasis at different points during the programming period.  

However, an increase of 10% to the overall budget of €250 million available for the LEADER programme as outlined above would equate to approximately €3.5 million increase on average annually.