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

To be fair, there has been unprecedented investment in rural Ireland. One need only look at the rural regional development fund, category 1 call, and the successful candidates. That amounted to €81 million. This is since the rural development policy was launched. There was €81 million for that, €15 million for outdoor recreation to support 126 new projects and €15.4 million for the town and village renewal scheme for 147 successful 2020 projects. For 2020-2021, there are calls for proposals, with €5.5 million for CLÁR, €14 million for outdoor recreation, €15 million for town and village renewal, €10.5 million for local improvement schemes as well as the €70 million LEADER transitional programme.

The Deputy referred to the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. I work very closely with the assembly. It is doing wonderful work and I want to continue to work with it and support it in what it is doing for the region and on how we can improve on it. I know it has some exciting plans and I am happy to collaborate with it in any way I can because I believe it is doing very good work there.

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