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Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys today (Friday 17 November) officially opened the Laragh Community Park and Biodiversity Trail, which received €200,000 under the LEADER Programme.
Developed by Laragh Sports Partnership, the state-of-the-art facility also received funding under CLÁR and the Sports Capital Programme.
Officially opening the project, Minister Humphreys said:
“As Minister for Rural and Community Development, I’m absolutely delighted that my department was able to support you with funding of €200,000 under the LEADER Programme.
“I know that this is a really important project for Laragh and its surrounding areas, particularly because of its thriving and healthy ecosystem which supports a wide variety of habitats.”
The Minister continued:
“When we look around ourselves today, I think of all the young people and think of the real difference an amenity like this park will make on their lives.
“It’s a place where they can come together to meet their friends and neighbours – a place of exercise, a place of laughter and of life.”
While in Co Cavan today, Minister Humphreys also launched the ‘County Cavan Climate Action Hub Feasibility Study’ commissioned by the Cavan LEADER Local Action Group through Cavan County Local Development.
The ‘County Cavan Climate Action Hub’ feasibility study examines the viability of a Climate Action Hub in Cavan to help promote sustainable development and climate action in the county.
The project, received funding of over €5,300, under the LEADER programme.
Minister Humphreys went on to say of both projects:
“I am delighted that my department’s LEADER programme was able to provide funding for these two important projects, which represents tangible progress to achieving milestones under Our Rural Future, the government’s rural development policy.”
LEADER, a key intervention of Our Rural Future, is a rural development programme co-funded by the European Union. It operates a locally-led, bottom-up, approach to meeting the needs of rural communities and businesses in rural areas outside of the city boundaries of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
The programme is based on a community-led approach to rural development and plays an important role in supporting communities and enterprises in progressing job creation, social inclusion and environmental projects at local level.
Funding is currently delivered by Local Action Groups (LAGs) in 28 sub-regional areas. These groups are partnerships of public and private entities from a defined geographical area. LAGs are responsible for local projects in accordance with the Local Development Strategies they develop themselves.
€250 million has been made available for LEADER for the period 2021 to 2027. This is comprised of €70 million for the transitional period, 2021 to 2022, and €180 million for the period 2023 to 2027. This level of funding is the same as was provided for the previous programming period 2014-2020.
Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for rural Ireland for the period 2021-2025. It represents a new milestone in the approach to rural development policy for Ireland and adopts a more strategic, ambitious and holistic approach to investing in and maximising opportunities for rural areas.