Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 May 2025
389. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if any independent evaluations of the LEADER programme’s value for money have been commissioned since 2020; if so, to provide the main findings; and if further reviews are planned in the current programme cycle. [21886/25]
View answerThe Department strives to ensure that programmes under its remit are operating effectively and efficiently, which includes the undertaking of independent evaluations.
In 2021, the Department sought an independent review of LEADER delivery models for the 2014-2020 LEADER Programme. The overall aim of the review exercise was to gauge the effectiveness of the 2014-2020 LEADER programme and explore how the delivery mechanisms for 2023-2027 LEADER Programme could be implemented. The report made a number of recommendations which informed the selection process for the current LEADER programme which runs to 2027.
As a core element of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework, the LEADER programme is subject to a range of ongoing evaluation and monitoring arrangements at EU level. For example, the programme is part of the Monitoring Committee structure in place to monitor progress across CAP measures in each member state, and is subject to the EU's Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework which requires, inter alia, the submission of Annual Implementation Reports to the EU Commission. In addition, LEADER formed part of the interim review of the CAP Rural Development Programme and will also be included in the ex-post evaluation to be completed by the end of 2026. A similar evaluation framework is in place for the CAP Strategic Plan (the successor to the Rural Development Programme) with formal evaluations required under EU regulations to coincide with the programming period to 2027.
Finally, the LEADER programme is also subject to the range of inspection and audit requirements that are set out in the governing EU regulations, and a departmental internal audit review of the Programme is also scheduled to commence this year.
