Conor D. McGuinness
Question:487. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the percentage share of LEADER spending allocated for capital and current expenditure. [52374/26]
View answerThursday, 9 July 2026
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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 supports a broad range of activities which aim to respond to the diversity of the local needs of our rural areas.
It is delivered through Local Action Groups (LAGs) across rural Ireland. A feature of the LEADER programme is that it is based on a community-led, bottom-up approach to rural development.
The 2023-2027 LEADER programme has total funding of €180 million, with 75% or €135 million available to support projects being completed by rural groups and businesses, and 25% or €45 million available to support the administration costs of the LAGs involved in running the programme and the animation costs which are incurred at local level to work within local communities to identify, develop and deliver projects. This is in line with the provisions of the EU regulations governing the programme.