Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns and villages and rural areas across Ireland.

Since the RRDF was established in 2018, 215 projects have been approved for funding of €414 million. Expenditure of RRDF funding to date is €179.7 million.

The projects supported by the RRDF are coordinated and integrated projects which can involve co-operation between public bodies and communities, philanthropic funders and the private sector.

Matched funding must be provided by applicants and may be in the form of a combination of wider Exchequer and/or State sector expenditure, local authority investment and/or land, community investment, philanthropic contributions, private sector investment (where appropriate), or other asset contributions.

Match funding of €157 million has been committed to RRDF projects to date, bringing the total investment in rural towns and villages to €571 million.

Beyond the level of investment and match-funding, it is clear that the RRDF is having a transformational impact in rural areas, and interest in the scheme is very strong. In the most recent call for applications under Category 1, 60 applications were received covering a wide range of strategic rural investment areas including regeneration, heritage, community facilities and enterprise development.

I expect to be in a position to announce allocations from the fifth call shortly.