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

I thank Deputy Carey for raising this issue. This year's town and village renewal scheme has been tailored to assist our rural towns and villages to respond to the challenges presented by Covid-19. The scheme includes an accelerated measure which focuses on supporting initiatives that can immediately help towns and villages to adapt to social distancing requirements and provide safe environments for people to shop and socialise. With support from the Government's July stimulus package, funding of €10 million has been provided for this measure in 2020, which will be allocated under three funding rounds. I have already announced the successful projects under rounds 1 and 2 of the accelerated measure, with a total of €6.1 million being approved for 226 projects across the country. This includes funding of €227,163 for nine projects in County Clare. Funding applications under round 3 of the accelerated measure are currently being assessed by my officials and further funding announcements will be made when that process is complete. Details of all projects approved under rounds 1 and 2 can be found on my Department's pages on gov.ie.

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