Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carey for raising the issue of this very important application under the urban regeneration and development fund. He has consistently raised the merits of this project with my office over recent months. Project Ireland 2040, which was launched by the Government on 16 February 2018, is the overarching policy and planning framework for the social, economic and cultural development of Ireland. It includes a detailed capital investment plan for the period from 2018 to 2027, the National Development Plan 2018-2027 and the 20-year national planning framework, NPF. The principles of the NPF are underpinned by the national development plan, NDP, a ten-year €116 billion capital investment programme. The National Development Plan 2018-2027 established four new funds, with a combined allocation of €4 billion to 2027. The URDF has an allocation of €2 billion to 2027, primarily to support the NPF's growth enablers for the five cities and other large urban centres, such as Ennis.

The URDF, which was launched in 2018, is providing part-funding for local authority-led projects that will enable a greater proportion of residential and mixed-use development to be delivered within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and large towns while also ensuring that more parts of our urban areas can become attractive and vibrant places in which people choose to live and work as well as to invest in and visit.

Too many of our large towns and cities have been blighted by run-down and poorly utilised areas. Through this urban regeneration and development fund support, local authorities now have the opportunity to embrace the challenge of harnessing the untapped potential of these areas so that they contribute positively to our urban communities.

The URDF-supported capital programme has been very well received and already the URDF is providing assistance for a pipeline of major projects that will contribute to the regeneration and rejuvenation of Ireland's five cities and other large towns. The URDF provides planning authorities with the opportunity to co-ordinate their planned regeneration and rejuvenation of our large towns and cities with a stream of tailored significant Exchequer capital investment for the first time, which will ensure that the right project is happening in the right place at the right time.

In 2019 approval in principle and provisional funding allocations issued in respect of the 87 major projects across the country, including projects in Ennis, which were approved under the first call. The Deputy mentioned this when referring to the jigsaw which we are now trying to complete. Some €3.85 million in URDF support has been allocated to support rejuvenation and enhancement as part of the Ennis town centre public realm regeneration programme, which involves extensive works at Parnell Street and the network of lanes and bow-ways in the medieval core of Ennis town.

Under the second call of the URDF, which was launched earlier this year, 76 proposals were received, with every local authority submitting at least one application. One of these was a proposal from Clare County Council for further support in respect of Ennis town centre public realm regeneration, which Deputy Carey has mentioned. Many of the proposals received under this second call are of significant scale and complexity and require careful evaluation. This process is ongoing in my Department.

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