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

I thank Deputy Carey for raising these issues. Clare has been successful in its rural regeneration and development funding in past calls. A total of €9.8 million has been allocated to County Clare since the fund was opened. There were a number of projects this time. The one the Deputy specifically referred to is Kilmihil. I would say that anybody who has been unsuccessful should engage with the Department and get feedback. The main reason that some applications were not successful this time was that, first, one must have planning permission. That was a criterion that had to be complied with. Some applications did not fit in with the criteria of the fund. For example, some applications were for greenways. We know that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has a big pot of money for greenways but in this round of funding, I was trying to target dereliction and centre-of-town properties that had gone out of use.

Some projects just did not stand up to scrutiny. They did not represent good value for money or perhaps there were issues with sustainability. I would say to Deputy Carey to get the applicants to the project to engage with my officials. We will give everybody feedback and go through it with them. The good news is that I will have another round of this funding, which I will launch later in the year. I have seen this on many occasions. If one does not succeed the first time, always try again. Go back, look at the projects, see where the weaknesses might be, discuss it with the officials, and be prepared to go again. We want to see and we want to support good projects. If we need to improve them, it is important that we do that. I saw one project which was turned down twice. They were very down in the mouth the second time but the third time, they got it. They said to me afterwards that when they went through the process, they looked at the areas that needed strengthening and ended up with a much better project at the end of the day. That was under the regional enterprise development fund, REDF. I would say that across the board to anybody where there are disappointed people coming forward, asking why their project did not get it. That is what they need to do.

Before I go any further, the Chairman asked me about public servants. I can say that in my own Department of Rural and Community Development, 94% or 95% of the staff are working remotely. It is working out very well. There are 6,500 staff in the Department of Social Protection, where we provide a very much customer-focused service. We have been able to do many services online and about 50% of staff work remotely. We have a target of 20% of the public service, equating to 70,000 public servants, or 8,500 civil servants.

The Chairman mentioned community funding. We have to tease out the details of that project, which is important. There may be a particularly important service or building which will be lost in the community. We will work with communities where they can see a clear pathway and make a good case about why they should take it and run it. We will support them in that. We will do that with the assistance of the local authorities. That is the idea behind that community fund. We will all identify different projects or services that may be lost to our areas.

If the community gets a little help, we will support it. Indeed, we can look at the social enterprise model, which, of course, is great in terms of those type of facilities. I think I have answered all of Deputy Carey's questions.