Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I thank Deputy Currie for raising this issue. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary.

The Deputy mentioned the town centre first policy. As she said, it is a major cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres and provide an integrated policy approach to the development of Irish towns. The town centre first policy supports the vision outlined in Our Rural Future for a thriving rural Ireland. It does this by providing a policy framework, financial support and access to funded capital schemes to facilitate the regeneration of rural Irish towns. This is to help make our rural towns and villages resilient and vibrant places to live, work, invest in and visit.

To this end, the Department’s rural development investment programme operates a range of capital schemes that are targeted at rural areas outside of more urban metropolitan locations. These schemes include, for example, the RRDF and the town and village renewal scheme. The town centre first policy was developed in conjunction with the Minister for housing. As such, the policy can and does have application to communities across larger and more urban towns as well as rural settlements. There are dedicated funding schemes, provided by that Department, available to local authorities to support larger and more urban towns, including the urban regeneration and development fund, the vacant property refurbishment grant under the croí conaithe initiative and the THRIVE scheme which revitalises our heritage buildings.

In line with its remit, my Department has supported the development of town centre first plans for Dublin towns like Rush and Lusk, which I note are not on the Deputy's list. A key element of the development of a town plan is the community's own identification of priority projects in that town, something the Deputy mentioned. The capital funding schemes available, such as the town and village renewal scheme, can then assist those communities in delivering on their aspirations, be this through a community centre, public realm works, public park or other community facility.

The town and village renewal scheme was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout lreland. Since the launch of the scheme, almost €184 million has been allocated to over 1,800 projects.

The scheme targets funding primarily at towns and villages outside of city metropolitan areas with populations of fewer than 10,000 people. However, towns with a population of up to 15,000 may be eligible if a high-quality application is received. I do not know if that refers to the towns Deputy Currie is speaking about. I heard what she said about the funding gap. I am not fully au fait with all of this, but I can see how some towns could fall through those cracks. While I know the intent of this programme, I still hear what the Deputy is saying. All I can say is that I will certainly bring this to the attention of the Minister. The Deputy is talking about revising these schemes and looking at where the gaps are. I think that is a reasonable and sensible thing to do, and I will make sure that her query and concern are relayed to the Minister.

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