Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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17. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the per capita LEADER funding allocation for east Galway, noting that the per-head funding is lower than that of neighbouring regions; whether his Department has considered increasing the overall LEADER budget, including minimum allocations for local action groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22931/26]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The LEADER programme is a core component of my department's Rural Development Investment Programme, and has been operating successfully in Ireland for 35 years. As the Deputy will be aware, the current programme runs from 2023 to 2027, and has a total allocation of €180 million.

Within this overall budgetary allocation, Galway has an allocation of €9 million, almost €5.5 million of which is allocated to Galway East. In keeping with the multi-annual nature of the LEADER programme, this allocation was made at the start of the programming period to enable Local Action Groups to effectively manage funding and projects over multiple years.

The model used to allocate funds to LEADER areas was not based on per capita funding. Rather, the approach taken was that each LEADER area was initially given the same base line allocation of €3 million. The remaining funding was then allocated based on population density and Pobal's Deprivation Index.

This approach ensured that a fair, robust and transparent allocation process was in place. It also ensured that the allocation took account of the nature of the LEADER programme itself by allocating funding by reference to issues such as social deprivation which are at the core of what LEADER seeks to address.

Under the current programme, my focus is on ensuring that the available budget delivers high quality projects to rural communities across the country, and I have no plans to increase the €180 million funding available for the current programming period.

I am also committed to ensuring that a well funded LEADER programmes remains at the core of the Common Agricultural Policy in the new programming period from 2028 onwards. I continue to advocate strongly at national and EU level for a well funded LEADER programme which will build on the 35 years of success which has been delivered to date.