Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister Edwin Poots is expected to unveil a new 'matching funds' scheme which will operate in part through local councils.

According to senior sources, Mr Poots will outline in principle that the Executive will provide equal cash amounts to match the funding stumped up at council level.

And according to party sources, the ceiling sum which the Stormont administration would match could be up to £20,000.

The transfer of functions could also form part of the share-out of responsibilities between regional and local government amid growing concerns that funding for community festivals could be squeezed.

Mr Poots said he believed his intended statement should give Assembly members some confidence on the issue.

But he added that at present community festivals do not "seem to fit" within his DUP colleague Nigel Dodd's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, where they come under the tourism strategy remit.

The SDLP's Pat Ramsey this week warned there was a "level of anxiety" among the organisers of good events, including community events, following the Executive's decision to scrap the Northern Ireland Events Company which has a £1.2m deficit.

As the Belfast Telegraph revealed last week, the overspend represents around half of the total annual budget of the company, whose board was initially told they would be allowed to address the problem "in the first instance ".

A Community Festivals Fund which aims to improve the capacity of community festivals, and make them less reliant on public funding came into effect during what turned out to be the last year of Direct Rule.

Until the return of devolution it provided financial support to 42 festivals, in both urban and rural areas, including a number of new and emerging events.