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

This is the first plan of its kind to take a cohesive and co-ordinated approach across the whole of Government to economic and rural development. Over the three-year period of the action plan for rural development, the Government will invest a significant level of funding in programmes which will support rural Ireland. Many of the funding components are new, or have only been announced in recent weeks, in anticipation of the action plan being published.

Examples of new investments include up to €60 million over the next three years to rejuvenate over 600 rural towns and villages; a doubling of funding for flood risk schemes to €100 million per annum by 2021; €6 million for investment in the development of blueways; €10 million will be invested in our national parks and nature reserves; and a €10 million, or 50%, increase in funding under the SEAI’s better energy communities programme, which will total €30 million for 2017. Other important measures in the action plan include the recruitment of 3,200 new gardaí over the next four years; the introduction of a new community CCTV grant scheme; significant investment in the seniors alert scheme; and the provision of 50,000 apprenticeships nationwide by 2020. The details of funding for these, and other new initiatives, will be a matter for the relevant Minister.

As far as my Department is concerned, funding for regional and rural programmes has increased from a figure of €61.2 million in 2016 to €79.2 million in 2017, an increase of 29%. It is important to bear in mind, however, that many of the commitments in the action plan involve new policy initiatives which will not necessarily require additional funding to have a positive impact, for example the development of a new and effective framework for rural-proofing Government policies or the development, for the first time, of a national policy on social enterprise.

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These new measures will complement existing programmes which are referenced in the action plan, such as the €4 billion rural development programme 2014-2020 or the €275 million initial allocation to the national broadband plan. These programmes are referenced in the action plan because they will clearly play an important part in the Government’s approach to rural development.

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