Written answer
Departmental Schemes
The Minister provided LEADER allocations by multiannual programming period since 2007, explaining they are not annual figures and noting broader rural-development investment.
4280. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the allocation to the LEADER programme for each of the years 2007 to 2025 and to date in 2026, by year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58026/26]
Comment on this
LEADER is a community-led approach to local development that has been operating in Ireland over the last 35 years.
The programme has evolved through successive programming periods, and in 2007 it was mainstreamed into the Common Agriculture policy, becoming a key intervention within Ireland’s Rural Development Programme.
The details requested by the Deputy in respect of LEADER programme allocations since 2007 are outlined in the below table. LEADER is a multi-annual programme, with allocations made at the start of the programming period to enable Local Action Groups to effectively identify and fund meaningful projects over the multi-year period. Therefore, the details provided in the below table shows the allocations for each programming period, rather than on an annual basis.
The funding for the LEADER programme should be considered in the context of the expanding capital allocations which have been made available across the range of rural development schemes and supports under my department's Rural Development Investment Programme in recent years.
Further details regarding the current programme are available on Gov.ie/LEADER