Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 September 2022
335. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which she expects the Leader programme to be made available throughout the country over the next twelve months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45372/22]
View answer336. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which she expects the Leader programme to be made available in County Kildare over the next twelve months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45373/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 335 and 336 together.
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 for the period 2023-2027
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. This allocation was agreed by Government in October 2021. The allocation of this funding across LEADER areas will be announced in tandem with the forthcoming two stage selection process for the new LEADER programme.
Transitional funding of €70m was also provided for the LEADER Programme 2021 and 2022 to ensure that there was no gap in funding prior to the commencement of the 2023-2027 programme.
My Department’s focus now is to finalise the design of the new LEADER programme in conjunction with key stakeholders. I hope to be in a position to launch the selection process in the coming weeks.
For the duration of the selection process, stakeholders will be engaged in preparatory work relating to strategy design and a separate funding stream is available to support this work.
While this process is ongoing, existing LEADER Groups will also still be engaged in delivering projects on the ground and in closing out the current programme.
All available project funding has not yet been allocated to projects or drawn down by LEADER groups under the transitional programme. Approximately 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.
Currently, nationally, over 5,400 projects have been approved for funding in excess of €228 million. The total amount allocated to the Kildare LAG under both the 2014-2020 and Transitional programme was over €6.8 million. This funding is allocated at the start of the relevant programming period rather than on an annual basis in keeping with the flexibility afforded to LAGs in managing delivery.
I am confident that the implementation of the new LEADER programme will help to sustain the crucial contribution that LEADER has made to the realisation of our ambitions for rural Ireland as set out in Our Rural Future.
