Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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365. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will outline the allocation to subheading A.5 rural and regional supports in the years 2024 and 2025; the measures that this allocation supported; by year in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55713/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The LEADER programme is co-financed by the European Commission under the Common Agricultural Policy, through the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development. It is a multi-annual programme, with allocations being linked to a programming period set at EU level, rather than an annual basis.

The Programme is administered at local level by Local Action Groups (LAGs), ensuring a bottom up and community led approach to rural development investment. The initiatives to be funded under the Programme are selected at LAG level and are required to be in line with the overarching themes of the Programme and the local priorities set out in each LAG's Local Development Strategy.

The funding allocations for each LAG area at the outset of each programme to provide them with greater flexibility to manage their budgets over the programming period. Funding is then paid out by my Department as costs are incurred and claims for payment are submitted. Given the structure of the LEADER programme, it is expected that the pattern of expenditure would not be evenly spread over each year.

The table below outlines the allocations which form the basis of the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) for LEADER in 2024 and 2025 as requested.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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366. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will outline the allocation to subheading A.4 5 rural and regional supports in Budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55714/25]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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370. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will outline the allocation to the local improvement scheme in each of the years 2020 to 2025 and for 2026; the measures that this allocation supported, by year in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55718/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 366 and 370 together.

The Local Improvement Scheme or LIS is a key support to rural communities in improving non-public rural roads and laneways that are not typically maintained by local authorities.

The table below outlines the allocations which form the basis of the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) for LIS in each of the years from 2020 to 2025. Funding allocations for 2026 will be confirmed in the REV 2026 which will be published in December in 2025 and then considered by the relevant Oireachtas Committees in early 2026.