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

I am looking here at the town and village renewal scheme funding alone, and west Cork has not been doing too badly. I look at Bantry, which got €216,000 on top of RRDF funding. Dunmanway got €96,000. Glengarriff got €100,000 for installing a new riverside walk. I was out on the Beara Peninsula, where they are doing wonderful work on the Beara walk and the equestrian trail. There are a lot of opportunities, but the applications have to be submitted. If they are not, my Department cannot give the projects the money. I will be going back to Cork, no doubt. I was in Banteer. I know that is not in the Deputy's constituency but, my goodness, what a wonderful day we had there. We have been able to support wonderful facilities there, not only through LEADER but also through other funding that has been provided. It is a credit to what they have done as a community there. They got their application in and got the funding, and it is a state-of-the-art facility. The Deputy's brother was there too so he will be able to give him a good briefing on what they were able to do.

I encourage communities to come together and work with their local authorities and get these applications in. That is what this Department is about. It is about supporting them. However, applications have to stack up. People might have good ideas but they have to have plans and have to make sure the project is sustainable and will deliver for the people on the ground. That is important because all applications are independently assessed when they come into my Department and some of them do not cut the mustard. For those that do not, I suggest going back to the drawing board, having another look, engaging with the Department, seeing where they fell down and getting the application in for the next time. The good news is that the money is still there.

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