Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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73. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will develop a set of initiatives to support the strengthening of new communities in rapid growth areas on the fringe of Ireland's cities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53400/22]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Minister to think about communities that fall between two stools, namely those in rapidly-growing fringes of our cities. They may nominally have access to developed urban facilities but the reality is very different. For years they are often without any sports facilities, are relying just on takeaways and schools are built very slowly. These communities need a leg up. Will the Minister take a leadership role in that area?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. This year my Department had a budget of €378 million, which is utilised to provide supports to both urban and rural communities. The national development plan also places a particular focus on solutions to strengthen housing, climate ambitions, transport, healthcare and jobs growth for communities in every region. My Department supports the development of community infrastructure across the country through programmes such as the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, the LEADER programme, the town and village renewal scheme and the community enhancement programme. This year I have further supplemented this investment by establishing a community centre investment fund that will support groups in every county to carry out refurbishments and improvements of their local community facility. These facilities represent vital infrastructure to support our communities, including in expanding areas such as those referred to by the Deputy.

My Department also operates a range of other community supports such as the community services programme, which assists community-based organisations through a social enterprise model. It typically supports organisations to meet local service gaps and provide access to services and facilities that would otherwise generally be unavailable. In addition, the social inclusion and communities activation programme, SICAP, provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion at a local level. The value of the programme has again been seen in recent times in responding to the needs of the people from Ukraine to help them settle and engage with local communities. I am confident the current suite of supports provided by my Department will continue to support and enable our growing communities to thrive throughout the country.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. I ask that she ask her officials to provide her with data on the proportion of those moneys that goes to the high-growth communities on the edges or our cities in Waterford, Galway and Dublin, including in my and the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's constituency. These communities do not have the sports clubs that can draw down sports grants. They do not have the community facilities that can be refurbished. They do not have schools because the Department of Education has a policy of waiting to build a school until the children have been in the area for ten years. This needs leadership within Government to join up thinking so there are special quotas from sports capital grants and social capital grants to protect and grow those communities. We are saying half the population growth over the next ten years, which is a minimum of 500,000 people, are going to go into those areas. There is not sufficient thinking about them and the NDP has not seriously addressed them.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate my focus is first and foremost on supporting rural communities. That is my priority as Minister for Rural and Community Development. Many of my Department's funding programmes, such as CLÁR and the rural regeneration fund, are specifically targeted at rural towns, villages and parishes. For the larger urban population areas the Government has the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, under the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government. Some very significant projects across the country have been funded under the URDF. In my Department I have introduced the new community centre investment fund, which is available to all communities, be they urban or rural. Where there is population growth we want to ensure families have access to quality community facilities. I have already announced the small-scale grants of up to €25,000 under that fund and hope to announce the larger grants of up to €300,000 in the coming weeks. That funding is to support the upgrade and enhancement of existing community centres.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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While the Minister is right that her title refers to rural development, it also refers to community development. Who is looking out for these urban communities if not her Department? It is a gap in Government thinking. If those urban communities do not grow well the hope of compact development with low emissions, and all those things we believe are the future, will struggle. We need to frontload investment into those areas and not do as most Departments do and wait far too long to make that investment. I plead with the Minster to try to take a leadership role in this and maybe elbow some of her compatriots around the Cabinet table to shift their position on this.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is far too ladylike to elbow people.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am being given the job of doing the elbowing. I take Deputy Bruton's point. I appreciate there are bigger communities, more people moving in and facilities are needed. I secured €20 million for a fund targeted at new-build community centres. That fund can be drawn down in both rural and urban areas. It will be targeted specifically at areas where there has been population growth and there is currently a lack of a community centre. The URDF is the scheme that should look at the areas the Deputy is addressing because as I said there is a specific focus on the rural in my Department. He will appreciate there has been unprecedented investment in rural Ireland, which is paying off, making changes and making a difference to people's lives. It is something we need to look at as a Government and I am happy to follow up on it with my colleagues though my focus remains, as I said, on the rural side of things.