LEADER

in plain words

LEADER is EU rural development money, spent locally. Every county outside the five cities has a Local Action Group, usually the council's community committee, with a local development company doing the work: Kilkenny LEADER Partnership, Waterford LEADER Partnership, North East and West Kerry Development, South Kerry Development Partnership, County Wicklow Partnership and Carlow County Development Partnership. They decide what gets funded, within national rules, and they are the people to ring.

For a club the money is capital: a clubhouse extension, a walking track around the pitch with lights on it, an all-weather surface, a sensory trail, a roof. The rate for a community project is up to 75 per cent and the ceiling is €500,000 where nothing is being sold, or €200,000 where there is any trading in it. Most awards are a fraction of that and the rate is decided case by case. Since 2023 the lists include Ballon GFC's clubhouse extension and playground at €405,419, Kildavin Clonegal GAA at €193,553, Dingle's all-weather community pitch at €139,875, Listry GAA's walkway and fencing at €100,000, Kilbride GAA at €115,647, Glenbeigh Glencar's track lighting at €83,387 and a run of Kerry walking tracks between €30,000 and €65,000.

The gate is community use, and LEADER is stricter about it than any other scheme on this site. The rules say that funding a facility on a club's grounds "must be conditional on the project promoter developing and implementing an inclusion strategy to ensure use of the facility by the entire community", and then: "It is not sufficient to state that the sporting facility is open to all. Active efforts should be made to market the sporting facility to all segments of the community." The facility must be open to non-members, free or for a nominal charge that covers the lights and the heat and nothing more.

Two rules decide whether the money is ever paid. Nothing spent before the signed contract is received by the Local Action Group is eligible, not a deposit, not a digger. And the club signs a declaration that the project could not go ahead without LEADER, which the rules call deadweight. A project the club was going to do anyway, out of its own reserves, is not what LEADER is for, and the rules say so.

the money

Community facility, no trading

Up to 75 per cent, up to €500,000

Anything with a trading element

Up to 75 per cent, up to €200,000, and a €300,000 state-aid cap over three years

Feasibility and planning work

Up to 90 per cent, up to €30,000

Minimum grant

€1,250 nationally; Waterford sets €5,000

Professional fees

Inside 12 per cent of the capital cost, never on their own

Those are the national ceilings from the operating rules. Each Local Action Group sets its own budget per call and its own rate per project. Waterford's last call offered €5,000 to €200,000.

The rules require "at least 5% of the total project cost" as a private cash contribution from the club. Voluntary labour at €15.52 an hour and donated land or a lease can count towards the rest of the match for a community project, but never replace the 5 per cent cash. Council cash can be public match for a community body; a grant from another scheme cannot.

The grant is paid in arrears, against receipted invoices and bank statements, in up to five phased payments once 20 per cent of the cost is spent. The club pays the contractor first. For a €240,000 clubhouse at 75 per cent, that means finding €240,000 and getting €180,000 back in stages, so a bridging facility or a tolerant builder is part of the plan, not an afterthought.

What counts as own-funding evidence

• The club's own cash, at least 5 per cent
• Voluntary labour, costed at €15.52 an hour, as part of the balance
• Donated land or a lease, with a certified valuation
• Council or State agency cash, for a community body

What does not

• A grant from any other scheme, CSFF or CLÁR included
• In-kind contributions as the whole match
• Money the club would have spent anyway, if it makes the project deadweight

Stacking is written into the rules with a soccer club as the example: a clubhouse extension funded by LEADER, a pitch resurface funded by the FAI, a running track funded by Athletics Ireland, each "stand-alone and operable in its own right". Swap CSFF for the FAI and that is how a club combines them. Other public funding must be declared at application and at every claim, and the same invoice can never appear twice.

tenure and title

Title, or a lease of at least five years counted from the final payment, signed, witnessed and with a map. The facility has to operate as funded for five years after that payment or the grant is repayable. A lease that expires inside the five years is the commonest way a club loses a LEADER grant it has already won.

Planning: full permission or a Section 5 declaration from the council. The rules say "It is not sufficient to get a written opinion from a private engineer." A Local Action Group can give provisional approval on a quantity surveyor's or engineer's estimate before planning and procurement are done, with a six-month clock that cannot be extended.

quotes and pricing

At application

The application wants costed drawings and an estimate per element, which is also what provisional approval is given on. If the tenders then come in higher, the club carries anything above 110 per cent of that estimate; if lower, the grant comes down to match. So the estimate is worth getting right the first time.

At formal approval

At 75 per cent a club sits in the heavier procurement category. Works under €200,000: written quotations from at least five firms against a written specification, or an eTenders process. Works over €200,000: eTenders, minimum 21 days. Services under €50,000: five written quotes. Lowest price wins on the short public works contract, and fewer than three responses means the Local Action Group has to document why the price is reasonable. This is the heaviest quote burden on this site, which is why the quote request here is sized for five.

How many quotes the rules want

Works under €200,000

Five written quotes against a specification, or eTenders

Works €200,000 and over

eTenders, at least 21 days

Services under €50,000

Five written quotes

Services €50,000 and over

eTenders

These are the Category 1 rules in the operating rules, for any grant above 50 per cent of cost. Splitting a job to duck a threshold is prohibited, and changing contractor after approval without telling the Local Action Group can void the grant.

the process, start to finish

1. 01

   Ring the development company

   Before any form. They will tell you whether the project fits their strategy, whether a call is open or coming, and what the realistic rate is. Application fees are not permitted, so the conversation is free.

   Now
2. 02

   Register an expression of interest

   A short form, on paper or recorded by the officer. Rolling in Wicklow and Kilkenny; by targeted call in Waterford, where an information workshop is compulsory before the form is issued. If the expression is eligible you are told the criteria and the marking scheme.

   Rolling, or at the call
3. 03

   Write the inclusion strategy

   How non-members will use the facility, how you will tell them, how women and marginalised groups are reached. This is a condition of the award, not a nice-to-have.

   Before the full application
4. 04

   Full application

   Costed drawings, planning or a Section 5 declaration, title or lease, the deadweight declaration, other public funding declared, tax clearance, the 5 per cent evidenced. Waterford also wants the phased-payment request at this stage.

   Weeks to months
5. 05

   Site visit and scoring

   An evaluation committee marks it. Pass mark 65 per cent; in a targeted call the projects are ranked and funded from the top down.

   After the deadline
6. 06

   Letter of offer

   Accept it in writing within the period given. Only then does a commitment exist. If approval was provisional, procurement and planning must be complete inside six months.

   After the decision
7. 07

   Procure

   Five written quotes or eTenders. Lowest price. The contractor's tax clearance as well as the club's. Photograph the bare site before anyone starts.

   After the contract is received
8. 08

   Build and claim in arrears

   Pay the invoices, send the receipts and bank statements, get the money back in up to five stages. A promoter-paid plaque on anything over €10,000. Operate as funded for five years.

   A year or more

where clubs go wrong

• Paying a deposit to hold a contractor before the contract is back with the Local Action Group. Everything before that date is ineligible, and the rules do not bend.
• Writing "open to all" in the inclusion strategy and stopping there. The rules say in terms that it is not sufficient.
• Charging non-members a fee that makes money. A nominal charge for lights and heat is allowed; net revenue is not, and it drops the project out of the €500,000 community category.
• Forgetting the money is paid in arrears. A club that cannot pay the builder first cannot draw the grant at all.
• Three quotes when five are needed. At 75 per cent the club is in the heavier procurement category, and a short tender list has to be justified in writing.
• A lease that runs out inside five years of the last payment. Grant repayable.
• Assuming the maximum. €500,000 is the national ceiling; the local call sets the budget, and Waterford's last call capped grants at €200,000.

tips that earn marks

• Make the inclusion strategy real and small. A Tuesday walking group for the active retirement, a women's couch-to-5k on the lit track, the school using the astro by day. Named groups and days beat adjectives.
• Pick the element LEADER likes and send the rest elsewhere. Walking tracks, track lighting, sensory trails and community rooms run through the Kerry and Wicklow lists. Dressing rooms and pitch floodlights belong in CSFF.
• Ask about a feasibility grant first if the project is big. Up to 90 per cent of €30,000 for the study and the planning application; Palatine GAA got €8,690 for exactly that.
• Use provisional approval if planning is slow. The group can approve on the estimate and give you six months to finish planning and procurement. Make sure six months is enough.
• Get the tax clearance conversation going with every contractor you ask to quote. Each one needs it before the group will pay.
• Write the specification before you ask for five quotes. The rules want quotes "on the basis of responses to written specifications", and the same document is what the quote request on this site sends out.

official links and forms