Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

2045.To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development to give an overview of current EU rules for de minimis LEADER funding, both for community and commercial.[35093/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development, which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy. It is delivered through Local Action Groups (LAGs) across rural Ireland. The LEADER Programme provides supports for community groups and micro, small and medium enterprises (SME) including through capital funding grants.

The LEADER Programme is co-funded by the EU and is subject to EU regulations in relation to the delivery of the Programme, including those governing state aid and de minimis aid. As such, the level of state aid funding provided to any one recipient, over any period of three years, must not exceed a ceiling of €300,000, known as the de minimis ceiling.

It is considered that LEADER funding provided to all project promoters in Ireland involves state aid and the de minimis rules apply. As outlined in the LEADER programme Operating Rules, all project promoters must declare to the Local Action Group (LAG) at application stage whether or not they have received other public funding, and if so, must provide a declaration stating the de minimis status of the aid received. A declaration is not required for agricultural de minimis when grant aid being awarded under LEADER and other combined aid over the three-year period does not exceed €280,000. A false declaration by a project promoter, resulting in the de minimis threshold being exceeded, could give rise to the aid being recovered with interest.

It should be noted that, in general, that state aid and de minimis will not apply for many LEADER projects undertaken by community applicants as they are not involved in economic activity (offering goods and services in a given market), and/or the project does not pass all of the state aid checks. However, if the project involves economic activity, then it is subject to state aid rules and de minimis applies regardless of whether the community group has a charitable status, how it is financed or whether it has a not-for-profit orientation

More information on state aid and de minimis requirements for the LEADER programme is available in the 2023 – 2027 LEADER Operating Rules, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/a5017c-leader-guidelines/

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

2046.To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if there are plans to review current CLÁR areas considering population decline for different age cohorts.[35094/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department's CLÁR scheme is a targeted investment programme that provides funding for small scale infrastructural projects in designated rural areas. This scheme has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Under the 2023 scheme I approved over €13 million for 303 projects.

The areas originally selected for inclusion in the programme in 2001 were those which suffered the greatest level of population decline from 1926 to 1996. The average population loss in the original CLÁR areas over the period 1926 to 1996 was 50%.

In 2006, an analysis of the 2002 Census data was carried out by Maynooth University and the programme was extended to include areas with an average population loss of 35% between 1926 and 2002.

A national review of CLÁR areas was subsequently undertaken in 2021 using the 2016 Census of Population data. From the review it is clear that many areas have seen population growth in the relevant period rather than decline, and indeed the most recent census data published by the Central Statistics Office points to further population growth across all counties since 2016.

The details of the review continue to be considered by my Department. In addition, the implications of the latest Census data would need to be evaluated before any decisions are made in relation to changing areas eligible for funding under the CLÁR programme. I believe that the current designation has served us very well and I don’t want to make changes unless they add value to the scheme.

Furthermore, it is important to consider the context in which CLÁR now operates. I have developed a suite of supports for communities in rural areas so that there is a range of different funding options available to rural communities, be they in CLÁR areas or otherwise. This includes the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme and the Community Centres Investment Fund to name a few.

I look forward to announcing more successful projects under CLÁR 2024 later in the year.