Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 71, 75 and 76 together.

Launched in 2022, the town centre first, TCF, policy is a major cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It supports the vision outlined in Our Rural Future for a thriving rural Ireland. It does this by providing a framework to facilitate and resource the regeneration of Irish towns to ensure they are vibrant and viable places to live, work, invest in and visit.

Significant progress has been made since the launch of the TCF policy. For example, a national TCF office has been established in the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, to drive the actions under the policy, 26 town regeneration officers have been appointed in each local authority to work as central drivers of TCF at a local level and a national oversight and advisory group has been established which oversees delivery of the TCF policy.

In December 2021, funding of €2.6 million was announced to support the development of 26 TCF plans. These community-based plans are produced by individual town teams drawn from local community and business representatives and are helping communities to develop a vision for their town and identify viable projects to realise that vision. This first phase of TCF plans is complete and has moved onto project delivery phase, including a plan for Lusk, in my constituency, Lusk for Life, that I was delighted to launch earlier this year. These town plans can be viewed on the TCF website at towncentrefirst.ie.

Last February, a new TCF suite of supports was launched, with an additional allocation of €4.5 million to help regenerate town centres through a bottom-up approach. This includes the development of a second phase of 26 TCF plans, the establishment and development of town teams nationwide and the completion of a large range of new community projects under a development measure. My constituency, Dublin Fingal, was recently awarded funding for two projects in Lusk under the TCF project development measure, in line with the vision provided in its TCF plan, showing the excellent progress towns such as Lusk are making in delivering on their vision for the area.

All successful projects and towns supported under the TCF suite of supports are available to view on the Department's website. The national office is establishing a clear methodology and approach to the development and structure of future plans. The preparation and finalisation of phase 2 TCF plans, including a plan for Kilrush in County Clare and Rush in County Dublin, are scheduled for 2025.

As is demonstrated by the 33 actions contained within the TCF policy, the significance of town centre first is that it provides for an integrated policy approach for the development of Irish towns, rather than it being a funded programme in and of itself. A number of major Government funding streams have now been aligned closely with TCF, including programmes such as the urban regeneration and development fund, the rural regeneration and development fund and the town and village renewal scheme.

Examples of recent funding announcements include €164 million announced for 30 regeneration projects under the rural regeneration and development fund in May and €20 million allocated under the town and village renewal scheme in April. These funding streams are critical to addressing challenges of vacancy and dereliction, and I am advised that it is intended to announce further calls for applications under both schemes in the coming weeks.

It is also important to note that there is a range of other support funding in place right across Government. I have already noted that the TCF policy has been developed in conjunction with my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and I encourage Deputies to look at the Government publication Bringing Back Homes which details more than 20 incentives, funded measures and grants to support a reversal of housing vacancy and dereliction. Some of the main supports available in regard to housing vacancy, in particular, include the vacant property refurbishment grant under the Croí Cónaithe initiative, the repair and leasing scheme, the buy and renew scheme and the living city initiative.

It is important that momentum is maintained in the delivery of the TCF policy. In this regard, some of the key priorities for the TCF national office over the coming months include the publication of the TCF national toolkit to support delivery, the roll-out of capacity building supports for town teams and continued research and consultation to identify examples of best practice which can be implemented in towns across Ireland.

It is also essential that we learn from our experience of the implementation of the TCF policy to date. With this in mind, there is a commitment in the policy to undertake a review of the effectiveness of the policy three years from its launch, which will be mid-2025. Any learnings that emerge from that process will be used to inform future decisions regarding TCF. In the meantime, the Government remains fully committed to the success of the TCF policy and will continue to work closely across Departments to deliver on the goal of revitalising rural towns and villages.

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