Results 18,861-18,880 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I will give the Deputy an overview of the RRDF first. The fund has to date allocated funding of €280 million for 191 projects nationwide costing over €380 million. Calls for applications to the fund are sought under two categories, namely, category 1 and category 2. Category 1 relates to large-scale ambitious capital projects with all necessary planning and other consents in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The whole purpose of category 2 funding is to help people to prepare projects for category 1 funding, which is for big multimillion euro projects. The cost of construction has gone up. We employ a quantity surveyor as part of the assessment, which is important to ensure the costs and contingencies have been included by the lead party for the project. In line with best practice in project...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy will be glad to hear the LEADER programme allocation for Cork is almost €21 million, up from €13.9 million under the previous programme. This is a 50% increase and the highest allocation in the country for the biggest county in the country. We assess applications on population and deprivation. Some counties get more funding than others based on that. There may be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 75, 82, 114 and 129 together. I am committed to supporting communities across Ireland through my Department's two strategies, namely, Our Rural Future and Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities. As part of that commitment and in line with the programme for Government, I launched the €15 million community centres investment fund in April...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Deputy Dillon has been a strong advocate for projects in County Mayo. Mayo did very well actually. I have a long list to hand of projects funded. It is important that we help these community centres. The Deputy asked me whether there is an appeals system and there is. We asked Pobal to assess these applications for us and it did so. There will be an appeal system whereby an organisation...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy O'Donnell. There is a good long list in Limerick as well. I want to thank all the Deputies. I believe everybody supported me on this scheme because it makes a huge difference to communities. That is what we are about. We are about helping people and communities to realise their ambition for their areas. There is nothing more annoying than struggling at community level and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: No, you would drown.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: It is important that we look at new schemes that help communities all the time. I value the input that I get in this Chamber and from each Member individually. At different points, Members say to me that I should look at this or that and I continually review the schemes. In fairness, there was a great number of successful applications in County Kerry, averaging around €18,000,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank Deputy Cannon. He is right actually. It could be a social centre for a retirement village. I visited Bree, Wexford, a few weeks ago where they have a wonderful community centre. It is like a campus. They have everything together including the community centre, the GAA club, with a school and a crèche beside it. These are all together, so that when you leave one you just...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I cannot agree with what the Deputy said. If he was going around the country visiting communities, like I am doing-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: -----talking and listening to people-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We are supporting communities.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We are helping communities realise their ambitions. There has been unprecedented investment in rural Ireland. The Deputy is out of touch to be making those accusations. To be quite honest, he is completely out of touch.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We are listening to people. I will go back and answer the other questions. Pobal assessed every single one of those applications.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Of course we did, because this is what people wanted. I will not-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: This is what communities wanted.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We consult and we talk to people. I listen to the Deputies, hear what is needed on the ground and we develop the support for communities and rural Ireland. There has been unprecedented investment, as I said earlier. We will look at this scheme. We just allocated the funding. We will look at the findings and if we need to make changes or make it better, we are open to listening to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Community Development Projects (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy should consult with the communities and hear what they want on the ground. This is a bottom-up approach. Like everything we do in the Department of Rural and Community Development, it is bottom-up. It is led by communities and it is supporting and empowering them. We want to continue to do that and deliver for them. I apologise to the Acting Chair.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Our Rural Future 2021-2025 is the most ambitious rural development policy for Ireland in decades. It was published in March 2021 and contains more than 150 measures across the whole of Government for both short-term recovery and long-term development. Delivery of the Our Rural Future rural development policy is monitored through a series of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Rural Schemes (27 Oct 2022)

Heather Humphreys: There has been multimillion euro investment in rural Ireland. Through the RRDF, there has been millions of euro invested in town centre regeneration projects and the conversion of old, derelict buildings into remote working hubs. There has been investment through the town and village streetscape enhancement initiative, which is now looking at repurposing whole buildings. I spoke to...