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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 47, 60 and 67 together.

The town and village renewal scheme is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. It is a key driver of the national rural development policy, Our Rural Future, and the town centre first policy. Since the launch of the scheme in 2016, more than €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. As with the full range of schemes operated by my Department, there is an ongoing process in place to ensure that value for money is being delivered. For example, the scheme's priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year to ensure that funding is targeted effectively to support vibrant and attractive communities and to respond to changing needs and opportunities. In recent years, this process has seen the scheme focus more on town centre regeneration projects and the challenges of vacancy and dereliction. In addition, the town and village renewal scheme is also subject to standard procedures such as the focused policy assessment process and the Department's internal control procedures.

More widely, my officials continue to work with expert bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service on the analysis and evaluation of our schemes and policies. As I have already mentioned, the town and village renewal scheme is closely aligned with the Government's town centre first policy. This is a major cross-Government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It supports the Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland, which is integral to our national economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and development.

In 2021, I supported the completion of an initial phase of 26 town centre first plans, including a plan for Abbeyfeale in County Limerick and Skibbereen in County Cork. Last week, I announced a further 26 towns to complete plans. Rathkeale will be the second approved town in Limerick and Kanturk will be the second in Cork.

I have also funded new town regeneration officer posts across local authorities. These officers will be a key resource locally. They will liaise with local communities and town teams, drive the development and completion of town centre first plans and help towns to make the best use of the wide range of funding streams available to them. I recently met with town regeneration officers and town team members from across the country. It is clear that there is a huge commitment among local communities to supporting and developing their towns and villages. This local buy-in and commitment is central to ensuring we can successfully develop projects that deliver real impact locally in revitalising towns and addressing vacancy and dereliction.

Last month, I launched a new range of town centre first supports that will provide further funding of €4.5 million to rural communities across the country. A key part of this is funding for up to three towns in each county to develop town teams or establish teams in towns where they do not currently exist. This is particularly important in helping towns that have not been able to access the range of support schemes to date or have had trouble in putting in place structures such as a town team at local level. It is important to recognise that not all towns are the same or have the same needs and challenges. That is why I have been anxious to ensure the supports offered by my Department are flexible and responsive in their design.

I encourage community members in Limerick, Cork and across the country to engage with their town regeneration officer and local authority and get involved. Town teams will be a key driver in ensuring local rates of vacancy and dereliction are identified and addressed appropriately through the many supports available, including my Department's rural regeneration and development fund and town and village renewal scheme. The fifth call of the rural regeneration and development fund, with a focus on revitalising rural towns and villages and addressing vacancy and dereliction, closed on 8 February this year. I expect to be in a position to announce the successful projects before the end of quarter 2 of 2024. Similarly, I expect to announce successful projects under the town and village renewal scheme by the end of quarter 1 of 2024, which is the end of this month. Together, these two funding announcements will enable a further tranche of high-quality regenerative projects to be delivered in towns across rural Ireland. This is in addition to the significant funding I have already announced in previous tranches of these schemes and under new initiatives such as the building acquisition measure.

My Department remains absolutely committed to addressing the issues of vacancy and dereliction in our rural towns and to ensuring we deliver on the Government's vision for rural Ireland as set out in the Our Rural Futuredocument. As I said, there are some towns with very active and successful town teams, while others have not quite reached that standard. The funding I announced will help some of those towns to build their capacity. We must get buy-in from local people. The town centre first officers will be able to help towns to set up a team and can guide them along the way. The grant towns can get is not a huge amount of money but it will help and encourage them. There is a very successful town team in my town of Monaghan but it is not replicated across the county.

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