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

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. This fund came about because it was raised with me. There were a lot of new communities around the country and I met with a number of Deputies from County Galway. There was one particular area with a lot of new houses and no community centre. They had a lovely plan, in fairness to them, but they had no money. I said to myself that this was happening in other parts of the country as well. That is why we opened up the €20 million fund. I want it shovel-ready with planning permission in place and I want it to be ready to go, go, go. The Deputy rightly asked me why funding is not being spent. For this specific scheme, we wanted shovel-ready projects. There will be other opportunities. There is always funding available for good projects. I have just allocated €45.5 million for the upgrade of existing community centres and that was very much welcomed. There is €20 million in this fund. We will see what the demand is like. I think there will be a keen interest in it. Some places will not be ready but they might be ready next year if there was another similar type of fund. We will see how it goes. There is €20 million there. The local authorities have a role here too now. The communities need to talk to their local authorities. If we are talking about buying a site, I cannot see why a local authority could not either give or help with the acquisition of a site.

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