Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before I ask my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy English, to answer the Deputy's questions about Traveller accommodation, I will answer his question about the €13 million re-profiling from the urban regeneration and development fund. The Deputy will recall that we made the first allocations under the fund last year. We approved applications worth €100 million under the first tranche of the €2 billion. There were two streams, A and B. Stream A involved projects that were basically shovel-ready and ready to go on-site. We would have assumed from the applications that stream B involved smaller parcels of money because people were being allowed to design projects or put together a case for what would become paid funding for projects in their towns. We approved €100 million. Funding worth €100 million was successfully approved. We worked with the local authorities to look at the numbers for what might be drawn down. The team in the Department administering the fund engaged with each local authority that was successful in securing funding under streams A and B to see how to get this off the ground and to look at what needs to be done next. A little more explanation was needed in the case of stream B projects. Some projects that were not successful under stream A or stream B are now in stream C. In the course of that engagement, they became aware that not all of the €100 million that had been approved was going to be drawn down. We think that approximately €58 million will be drawn down in the course of 2019. That allows for €13 million to be allocated to meet the cost of the children's hospital. As that money is not being drawn down this year, it will not delay any projects. An additional €13 million will be provided next year to make sure the fund has all the money that was committed to it.