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

The Deputy is dead right. The CLÁR programme does not have a huge fund, but it is a very impactful and important fund. I always make a point of trying to visit the communities that have put a lot of effort and work into fundraising themselves. I have seen the improvement in school carparks, playgrounds and indeed many other worthwhile projects, and I can say that CLÁR is small but impactful.

The maximum funding provided under measure 1 is €50,000. Measure 2 supports mobility, cancer care and community first responders. Indeed, I have been out to visit some of them and they do wonderful work, a lot of them on a voluntary basis. This helps them to provide the vehicles that they need to transport patients to and from the city, most likely, for treatment. Indeed, there a lot of the other groups, such as the subaqua groups, and the blood bikes, which is another very popular one, that get support. Measure 3 supports our islands and provides funding up to €50,000 for community amenities on our inhabited offshore islands and up to €100,000 for electric vehicles or up to €120,000 for electric vehicles or solar panels, and charging points are included. Again applications under this measure must be made directly to the Department. It is specifically targeted at the islands. All in all, as the Deputy well knows, this is a very useful fund for those areas that can apply for it. There are a lot of areas out there that would like to be able to do it, but it would be very difficult. I have gone through a lot of this and you could run into some difficulties, let us say, if you were to justify changing any of it now.

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