Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

It has not. There first call for proposals has gone out but not a cent of that €1 billion fund has been approved for allocation anywhere yet, so it is wrong to say it has been dispersed widely. We see that as providing the opportunity for strategic investment to deliver on the national strategic outcomes that are set out in the national planning framework. It is intended to support developments of scale. We are talking about proposals of €500,000 and above. That is the bar we are talking about. This is open to communities in towns and villages and their hinterlands with a population of fewer than 10,000 people, which is to align it with the alternative purpose of the urban fund, which also sits within that fund. The intent here is to support high-impact developments of scale that can have a real impact on the towns and villages to which the Deputy is referring. He is right to say that much of our investments so far are small scale. That is the nature of many of our programmes but they seek to get into the teeth of communities, as it were, to make things happen and they support small projects.

They might be small projects and it might be small money, but they and it are having an impact up and down the country in small communities in the opportunities provided under the various funding schemes.