Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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805. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if he will ensure that the three local community development committees in County Cork are allocated proportionate funding in the LEADER 2023-2027 Programme reflecting their size and need. [53273/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development launched last year which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy.

€250m has been made available for the LEADER programme for the period 2021 to 2027. This is comprised of €70 million for the transitional period 2021 to 2022 and an additional €180 million from 2023 to 2027, thus maintaining the level of funding provided for the 2014-2020 programming period. The maintenance of the €250m funding allocation will underpin the continued contribution of the LEADER approach in delivering on the Government’s vision for Rural Ireland and is evidence of the Government’s continued support for the LEADER programme.

I note the points raised by the Deputy in relation to the funding allocation for County Cork for the 2023-2027 LEADER programme. My Department’s focus now is to finalise the design of the new LEADER programme, including the funding allocations, and the views of all stakeholders are being taken into consideration in this regard.

I expect to be in a position to announce details of the commencement of a two stage selection process and funding allocations for the new LEADER programme shortly and look forward to continuing to work closely with stakeholders to build on the success of the LEADER programme over the last 30 years.