Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Coffey for his remarks. He is quite correct that rural Ireland is alive and well. Admittedly there are difficulties, and that is why my Department was set up. It was set up to determine what schemes would support rural areas. The Senator is quite correct about the town and village renewal scheme. This year alone, €21 million was made available to support 224 projects. Since 2016, we have delivered 675 projects, worth €53 million. To be fair to the local authorities and communities, the former were asked by my Department to talk to communities and let those communities make the suggestions to them. The authorities made the applications for them. I travel a lot around the country and have noted that fear has been spread in every county. The first year, the local authorities were allowed to submit 15 schemes and the second year we allowed them to submit 12. Some of the schemes were of a very high quality. It takes some time to deliver on them. They are being delivered upon, however. I can see this in every part of the country I go. They are working very well.

With regard to the outdoor recreation scheme, we have approved €1.8 million to date in 2018. Since 2016, we have allocated €23 million. Senator Coffey will have seen what this has done in Kilmacthomas in his county. I have seen it in Drumshanbo, where 78,000 people walked the boardwalk this year. That is what the schemes are all about.

The CLÁR programme is very simple. We have targeted very simple schemes to try to enhance the quality of life for people living and working in rural Ireland. They have worked very well.

The local improvement scheme is a simple scheme for those who are entitled to get their bóithrín or road done. They pay their water charges, household charges and taxes. The local improvement scheme is working very well. I would love to have more money for it. Other programs, including SICAP, are to help rural areas.

The Senator raised two or three specific issues. One concerned the new pilot scheme I set up. I was delighted to set it up. People might ask why there was no grant aid with it. We gave €100,000 to the six towns. I hope the local authorities will work with the businesses, communities and various community groups in the six towns we picked. The Senator raised this in his question. He is quite correct that I could have picked 16 other towns. Just before I am asked who picked them, let me say I got my officials to set up a group with the Departments responsible for housing and finance. The officials picked the six towns and submitted the list to me. They could have picked 16 more. This is a pilot scheme. I want it to be the case that we are not telling the rural areas what we want them to do. I want them to come back to me. The towns might have six different views on how they envisage moving forward. It is not always about grant aid. If it were, it would be noted that we had two schemes within the Department already. Two of the schemes did not work, namely, the repair and leasing scheme and the buy and renew scheme. They just did not work in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

Under the pilot scheme, we have given the local authorities €100,000 each to get consultants, sit down with the groups and come back early in the new year with their suggestions and recommendations. They might have six different suggestions and six new recommendations but they will know what is best for their towns. The Senator and I hear every day that we are out and about that there is much dereliction in many of the towns. Compulsory purchase orders should be used more by the local authorities. That might be one of the recommendations. They might need a mix of grant aid, with the support from the local authority and Department. I am open to considering schemes to try to revitalise some of the towns. The whole point of the scheme is to get people living in rural villages and towns. If they are going to do so, they have to have the necessary services and there has to be public relevance. The towns or villages have to be nice places in which to live, and in which people want to live. That is what the pilot scheme is about.

The Senator is correct about the rural regeneration scheme. The funding amounts to €1 billion over ten years. People said the 2040 project the Government announced was not going to happen. It is happening, however. We opened the scheme, we closed it and we will be making decisions in November. There are two categories in that scheme. One concerns shovel-ready projects. There were 126 in that category. There were 166 in category 2, which concerns projects that need development funding. Naturally enough, the shovel-ready projects mean they are shovel ready. When we allocate the money, the various authorities will be able to start drawing down the funding in 2019 and start the projects.

To be fair to the local authorities, they had a few very difficult years because of the recession. They did not have the staff in place. My officials and I sat down with officials from the County and City Management Association and we outlined to them the schemes that would happen over the next few years. The authorities had to have capacity. They now know they will have the schemes funded on a rolling basis. I see the improvements in the town and village scheme and the outdoor recreation scheme because of the sufficient capacity that now exists. The authorities know the schemes will be funded annually.

With regard to the rural regeneration scheme, I am delighted with the 126 applications this year. It means there is an interest. I appreciate the Senator is concerned about whether the authorities went out to communities. To be fair, they believed it would not happen. They did go out. My Department's representatives went around the country and had a number of meetings with the stakeholders. The shovel-ready schemes will happen but I hope that, now that we know what is happening, they will go out to communities in the second category. We will reopen the scheme again in March. I hope the officials will work out with communities how their needs can best be met and how they might have an input. The whole point of the rural regeneration scheme is that it is for bigger projects.

I am delighted with the rural regeneration scheme but want to keep the existing schemes, namely the CLÁR programme, outdoor recreation scheme, town and village scheme and local improvement scheme. These are all important. The good news is that the funding is in place for next year. The good news is that we had approximately 300 applications. People were aware of the scheme. They did not believe it would happen so fast. It has happened and it is now closed. We will make the announcements and I hope that in March, when we open the scheme, communities will be ready for it. It is worth €1 billion over ten years. The funding for next year is in place. There is €55 million extra in the budget for next year. We are committed to this scheme but also to the others. I want to send out loud and clear today the message that the rural regeneration scheme will not take over any other scheme. The scheme is specifically for bigger projects and to create the jobs, infrastructure or whatever applications are submitted. I want to see the shovel-ready projects starting early next year.

Some local authorities complained that they did not have the capacity or money to put some schemes and applications together. Under category 2 of this scheme, local authorities will get the necessary capacity and funding, and they will be able to put together strong applications. It is a good scheme that is going to work and will supplement the other schemes we have.