Mr. Fintan O'Brien:

I thank Senator Murphy, who has put his finger on a lot of the key issues and challenges that underpin the approaches we are trying to implement, both locally and at central level. Projects were mentioned, such as Garda stations as community hubs. I think there is real value in them and we are trying to support them. The Senator talked about the uniqueness of towns and it is relatively easy for us to write down policies like place-based approach but it is that lived example. The manifestation of that through local examples is really useful and that drives the process.

Similarly, the Senator mentioned heritage a couple of times and it is important to reiterate that we do see heritage as a central and key part of those town centre first policies and plans. Obviously, parking is a hugely emotive issue and every time I meet with local authorities there is a lot of discussion about parking. Getting to the net gain at the end of the project can be difficult but certainly in the last few iterations of our schemes, we are seeing a lot more of those town centre first principles coming through. We see a strategic, integrated approach to what these projects are trying to do. There may be an impact on parking but one can look at the positive here and the positive there and it is a full town view, which is really encouraging to see. We have been trying to focus some of our schemes around those footfall business issues as well with town and village renewal this year.

Finally, the idea of the plans was mentioned and we need to be very careful about not creating an expectation along the lines of "here is a plan - what do you do with it?" There have to be wins, there has to be follow-through. There are funding schemes available. Sometimes that can be a bit confusing and we are trying to simplify that, which is a challenge for us. It is about getting those wins and at the oversight group for Town Centre First, we have discussed quite a lot how a plan cannot be the end of the process. Encouragingly, we saw that approximately 30% of the projects announced this week under town and village renewal have a direct link to those plans. Considering those town centre first plans have not been around for an awful lot of time, that is really encouraging. We are in the process of going through the applications for the rural regeneration and development fund and again we are seeing those phrases, "town centre first plan" town regeneration officer" repeating through them. It is really encouraging that it is not the end of the process but is the start of making a real impact in towns.