Results 301-320 of 15,792 for speaker:Dara Calleary

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: First, I will respond to the Deputy's overall remarks about our key priorities. The key scaffolding document for the Department is Our Rural Future. We are involved in a sensitive consultation about rewriting Our Rural Future at the moment. We have had public meetings, including an online meeting yesterday. The document will be published at the end of this year or early next year. We have...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I do not have the breakdown of the figure. I would be happy to provide it to the Deputy. However, we should not forget that rural towns are important too. They are the important anchors for rural communities. We need healthy rural towns to feed healthy rural communities and vice versa. I will have to come back to the committee with that figure.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: That is there, but equally, there is evidence to show fantastic life in some areas. I was in Feohanagh in Limerick last Thursday evening where we reopened a former parochial house that has been repurposed as a community hub. That is being supported by my Department through the community centres investment fund, CCIF, and LEADER, driven by a local group of volunteers. To see the vibrancy...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I absolutely endorse everything the Deputy said about Galway Rural Development. It is a super organisation. I have met its members twice in the past six months since I took up office, most recently in Mountbellew where they have done a lot of fantastic work. They are also really good in the remit of my other Department, the Department of Social Protection, around community employment, the...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: It goes back to the work we do with Pobal, which has the statistics from censuses. Pobal uses that data and various income data and it is our main provider of such analysis. I am happy to engage with the Deputy on that space.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank Deputy Aird. The LIS is a major priority for me. It is important to put it into context. Since the scheme was re-introduced in 2017 by the former Minister, Michael Ring, some 4,816 roads around the country have been improved. That involved an investment by the Department of nearly €170 million. We know the backlog that exists and we are trying to address it. We are...

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I just see Deputy McGuinness's head nearly came up there as well. I cannot imagine any councillor in the country would stand over an underspend in LIS. There are almost 4,000 roads still on lists. No council should be underspending in LIS.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Laois is not one of them.

Select Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2025
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: We will be working on it. It is important. Councillors know how important it is. It is a big frustration for councillors and, as Deputy Aird said, it is small communities who really do not see a lot of other impact. On ORIS, it is flexible. We do a lot of work with Coillte. Recreation areas are not just local authority spaces; they are forests. They are some amazing Coillte projects...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Thar mo cheann agus thar ceann an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Buttimer, táimid an-bhuíoch den choiste, den chléireach agus den Chathaoirleach as an deis seo chun obair na Roinne don chéad cúig bliana eile a phlé. We have already had a discussion about the estimates in the select committee but I welcome the chance...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Portumna project is fantastic. I commend the Senator on her work on that. We are putting capital delivery teams in place across every local authority so that each has a core group of people who have experience in dealing with the Department and who can deliver those projects on the ground. In the context of delivering projects, there are some stand-out local authorities and some that...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: That is a social protection issue. I understand we are discussing rural issues today. I am happy to come back to the Deputy on that but I will not be able to give him a detailed response as we are dealing with my other hat today.

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: We are finalising the CLÁR review at the moment. We are looking at maps, at Pobal figures around deprivation levels and population changes in recent years, and at the CSO figures in regard to urban-rural classifications. I hope to have that finalised over the summer, because it is well past time to have it done, and to have it ready for the autumn. With regard to LEADER, the...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I thank Senator O'Reilly. There is quite a bit there. With regard to LEADER, it is EU cofunded, so it is not just us that lay down the rules there. It is intensely monitored in terms of funding. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are very focused on trying to make our schemes as accessible as possible where we can. There still has to be accountability. I do not want my...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Deputy can watch away.

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I am with the Deputy on the LIS. He will be delighted to know that there are fewer roads outstanding in Laois than there are in Mayo. I have made clear my position on the MFF. It is a position that is shared by the Minister of State and the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, as well as by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. It will be a clear priority as we go in to negotiate next...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: We hope it will be long done by the end of the year. It is a priority in the programme for Government. I want to ensure that it stands up and we have the actual figures and-----

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Chair is absolutely right on community centre investment. It has been one of the best programmes from the Department. Many of those community centres go back. I do not think there is anyone old enough in the room to remember AnCO. They were developed by communities in the late 1970s and 1980s and they had not been spent on. To give an example of the impact, the Minister, Deputy...

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The big figure for me was the number of drawdowns. In 2022, there was €45.8 million awarded for 861 centres and 750 of them are completed. That just shows you.

Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development: Rural and Community Development Matters: Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (2 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: We dealt with ORIS quite extensively. Deputy Aird is a big fan of that project.