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

I again thank both Deputies. In the first instance, it is very important that we get the schemes open for application and we will be doing that. We really need to back this up with money. We have a number of schemes now, including our rural regeneration and urban regeneration schemes and Croí Cónaithe, which are really unlocking the potential of our towns and villages.

In response to Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, the serviced sites funds will be directly linked to Croí Cónaithe. We are breaking our Town Centre First policy into four areas: governance and enabling structures; economic and social purpose; a new living towns approach; and aligning investment and resources. We are talking about compact growth within our towns and villages, breathing new life into them, giving people an option to try to bring liveability back into those areas, reducing the carbon footprint by doing that and ensuring all the structures are there. The more people we have living in our towns and villages, the better the chance for the butcher to stay open, the better it is for the local GAA club and all the services that towns and villages provide. We had people on the advisory group from RGDATA and chambers of commerce along with local authority members, architects and those working in environmental areas. We had a very wide stakeholder group involving about 40 people.

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