Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2019, the spend on RRDF was €31 million and the 2020 allocation was €53 million. That €53 million allocation in 2020 is to fund category 1 and category 2 projects. Category 1 relates to projects with a minimum funding of €500,000. Category 2 is aimed at giving the seed money so that organisations are ready to apply for category 1. To date, 63 category 1 projects have been approved for funding of €131 million. These projects will see total investment of €187 million in rural areas and 76 category 2 projects have been approved for funding of €35 million. The third call for category 1 projects launched in June is closing on 31 December.

Funding through the RRDF has been transformational for rural areas with some strong good projects. When the applications come in, the projects are thoroughly assessed by an independent panel meaning that some good stuff comes through there. It will take time to deliver those projects and Covid has led to delays on a number of fronts. The RRDF has a key role in social and economic recovery. We expect to ramp up the spending at the end of this year. Normally many requests come into the Department at the end of the year. Claims totalling €4 million came in last week. We prepay where it is warranted. If we have good evidence that they will spend the money and they need it to help them avoid having to draw down overdraft facilities, etc., we try to work with the project promoters and help them insofar as we can.

The latest tranche of the town and village renewal scheme was announced earlier this week. That was focused on measures to make towns and villages more Covid accessible and Covid-friendly. Some great projects came in, including outdoor cinemas, outdoor seating and other imaginative stuff. In this call we decided to include the towns with populations of more than 10,000, which had been left out. Normally we do not include them because towns with a population of more than 10,000 can apply to the urban regeneration and development fund and we keep the town and village renewal scheme for the smaller towns and villages.

The Deputy asked about the town centre first policy. My Department is committed to developing the centre of towns. We can make a real difference in the area of remote working. The budget allocated an additional €5 million to the town and village renewal scheme, specifically aimed at centre-of-town hubs and working spaces. That will revitalise towns which have plenty of buildings that can easily be adapted for co-working spaces with high-speed good broadband. I want to work with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on the broadband issue. Based on my experience in my previous Department I want to see more remote working and more investment in the regions and smaller towns. I will also work with the Tánaiste and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. We need joined-up thinking involving IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, my Department and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government all working together to ensure we can revitalise town centres.

We had a pilot scheme with six towns from various parts of the country. We have the report from those towns. Most towns throughout the country have similar challenges and problems. One of the big problems in the centres of towns is with the old buildings. We need to find ways to incentivise people to renovate those buildings. Sometimes when they renovate them, they find the commercial value considerably less than the cost of getting them back into shape again. We need to work with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government on that. My local town of Clones had a major investment of €5 million through the Department to regenerate some buildings and turn them into top-quality social housing. It is about bringing people back into the towns either to live or to work there.

Deputies will hear me talking about remote or connected working and I hope to work with them on that because it is a game changer. It was a dream or an aspiration this time last year and now it is a reality. We need to grasp that for rural areas, run with it and make it happen. Many people are working from home in their own communities. We want them to stay in those communities. I think it is a no-brainer.