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

Realising our Rural Potential, the Government's Action Plan for Rural Development, was launched in January this year. The plan contains over 270 actions to be delivered by a range of Government Departments, State agencies and other bodies over the next three years to support the economic and social development of rural Ireland.

My Department is leading on more than 60 of the actions in the plan. These actions will be implemented on a phased basis over the timeline of the plan, with timeframes for delivery set out in the document itself. Progress reports on my Department’s actions, and all other actions in the plan, will be published on a six-monthly basis, with the first report due to be published around July. I can, however, report that since the launch of the action plan my Department has made significant progress on a range of actions.

In February, I announced details of more than €9 million in capital funding for 56 arts and culture centres across the country. Over 80% of this investment will be in centres in rural areas. In the past number of weeks I, along with Minister of State, Deputy Ring, have launched the town and village renewal scheme and the CLÁR programme. Both schemes are now open for applications, primarily through the local authorities.

The Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, and I have established and co-chair an implementation group on broadband connectivity to drive the delivery of the actions in the report of the mobile phone and broadband task force which was published last December. Progress reports from the implementation group will be published on a quarterly basis, with the first report due shortly. My Department continues to work closely with local authorities on an ongoing basis to ensure there are no local barriers to broadband deployment and to identify priority areas for roll-out. Other actions which have been significantly progressed include the announcement by the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, of €500,000 in capital investment to boost the tourism potential of Ireland's national parks, the successful staging across the country of Cruinniú na Casca events on Easter Monday and the establishment of a new task force, chaired by the Minister of State, to progress the concept of an Atlantic economic corridor.

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