Marian Harkin
Question:134. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding arrangements that will be put in place for the Leader programme in 2023. [45154/22]
View answerThursday, 15 September 2022
Questions (134)
Written answers
The LEADER Programme is one of the key interventions of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development.
I was delighted to welcome the recent announcement that the European Commission has confirmed their approval of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan for 2023-2027, which includes the LEADER programme. This approval is a key step in the delivery of the next LEADER programme. A number of further steps will now be completed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in advance of bringing the CAP Plan to Government for final approval in the coming weeks.
As part of the new Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan, the Government has committed significant funding of €180m to LEADER for 2023-2027. I can confirm that all of this funding will be allocated to the Local Action Groups.
Transitional funding of €70m was provided for the LEADER Programme by the Government for 2021 and 2022 to ensure that there was no gap in funding prior to the commencement of the 2023-2027 programme. To date, , all available project funding has not yet been allocated to projects or drawn down by LEADER Groups under the transitional programme. 80% of project funding has been committed by LEADER Groups and I am aware that they continue to develop projects ‘in the pipeline’ in order to fully utilise the available budget.
On top of this core funding, additional administration Exchequer funding has been put in place for LEADER Groups who have exhausted all such existing funding in 2022. I have confirmed that this funding will be made available again in 2023, in cases where it is required by LEADER Groups. It is not expected that all groups will require such funding in 2023.
In addition, a separate funding stream of €2 million will be made available to eligible groups to develop a local development strategy for the new LEADER programme. I will be announcing full details in relation to the selection process shortly.
I am confident that the LEADER allocations made available by the Government are sufficient to allow the LEADER programme to continue to deliver for rural communities in 2023.