Results 5,541-5,560 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Community Development Projects (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: At the core of my Department's remit is the mission to support vibrant and sustainable communities across the country. My Department provides targeted investment and supports in both rural and urban communities, which enables rural regeneration, facilitates new working opportunities and fosters regional enterprise growth. Community centres, as their name makes clear, are places of amenity and...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Social Enterprise Sector (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Social enterprises are businesses that work primarily to improve the lives of people, with any surpluses generated re-invested into achieving their core social objectives. They frequently work to support disadvantaged groups such as the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, and the Traveller community, or to address issues such as food poverty, social housing, or environmental...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Community Development Projects (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development launched in 2021.The programme is based on a community-led approach to rural development and plays an important role in supporting communities and enterprises in progressing job creation, social inclusion and environmental projects at local level. The process to select Local...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Our Rural Future recognises the opportunity for rural rejuvenation that remote working presents and commits to establishing an integrated national network of 400 remote working hubs by 2025. I am pleased to say that we are well on our way to meeting this commitment. There are now 319 hubs on-boarded to the connectedhubs.ie platform and this number is growing all the time. The initial focus...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Island Communities (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 104 together. I was delighted to publish Our Living Islands, the National Islands Policy last week. The commitments in the policy will be delivered progressively over its lifetime and implementation will be underpinned by 3 year Action Plans, the first of which I also published last week alongside the policy. As the Deputy is aware, this ambitious...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Broadband Infrastructure (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Mobile Phone and Broadband Taskforce was re-established in December 2021 with an inaugural meeting co-chaired by myself and Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD, involving participation from all key State stakeholders. In April 2022 we held a full meeting of the Taskforce with both State and Industry representatives. After this meeting the Terms of Reference and Work Programme for 2022-2023...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Island Communities (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Our Living Islands,which I launched last week, is an ambitious new ten year national policy designed to support vibrant and sustainable island communities. Good transport services and a developed infrastructure are recognised in the policy as important prerequisites for maintaining island populations. My Department’s aim is to seek to meet these requirements through current and capital...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Our Rural Future represents the Irish Government’s blueprint for the development of rural Ireland over the next 5 years. It sets out a range of actions for delivery across Government, and sets the strategic framework for the delivery of capital investment under my Department's Rural Development Investment Programme. Over €64.2 million in funding has been allocated by my...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: heading (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: 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 Ireland. In 2022, the Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS) prioritised projects that bring vacant and derelict buildings back into use and promote residential occupancy in town centres. In recognition of the urgent need to transform and...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 101 and 106 together. A vital part of my Department's mission is to support vibrant and sustainable communities across this country. My Department provides targeted investment and supports in both rural and urban communities, which enables rural regeneration, facilitates new working opportunities and fosters regional enterprise growth. In 2022 my...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: In line with the ‘Our Rural Future’, the Government’s Rural Development Policy for 2021-2025, I announced an allocation of €70 million for the Transitional LEADER Programme which came into effect in April 2021 for the period 2021-2022. Arrangements for a successor programme to come into effect this year are well advance. The allocation for County Carlow for the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Island Communities (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I am delighted to confirm to the Deputy that that I launched Our Living Islands- an ambitious new 10-year policy an designed to support vibrant and sustainable island communities - on Árainn Mhór island off the cost of Donegal last Wednesday 7 June. Key to the development of the policy and action plan was the extensive public consultation phase which enabled island communities and...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Streetscape Enhancement Measure was introduced in 2021 as part of the commitment under Our Rural Future, Ireland's rural development policy The Measure is delivered under the umbrella of the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, and aims to improve the visual appearance of our urban streetscapes, which will bring about growth and increase confidence in our towns and villages. In line with the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Island Communities (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I have been informed by my officials that there has been correspondence between my Department and Galway County Council in relation to this issue in the past number of weeks. I understand that Galway County Council had to address the registration of ownership and boundary matters in order to progress the transfer of the land in question on Inishbofin. I understand that a final survey...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Local Improvement Scheme, or LIS, supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that the LIS is funded into the future. The scheme makes an important contribution to connectivity, which I view as an important issue for rural Ireland, whether it be access to...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Broadband Infrastructure (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The roll out of the Broadband Connection Point (BCP) network is progressing well. My Department continues to work closely with local authority Broadband Officers, colleagues at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, and the two commercial partners, National Broadband Ireland and Vodafone, to complete each connection. There are currently 290 Public BCPs live across the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Policies (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Our Rural Future is the most ambitious and transformational policy for rural development in Ireland for decades. It commits to developing an effective rural proofing model to ensure the effects of significant new proposals on rural communities are fully considered, and better target the particular challenges and opportunities facing them. To advance this measure, my officials commissioned...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS) was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme over €154 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. The Scheme has supported towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. In line with the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Local Improvement Scheme supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, Ireland's rural development policy, the Government is committed to ensuring that the LIS is funded into the future. The Scheme was reintroduced by my Department in 2017 following a number of years with no dedicated funding. I...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (13 Jun 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Local Improvement Scheme, or LIS, supports the improvement of rural roads and laneways that are not normally maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the Government is committed to ensuring that the LIS is funded into the future. The scheme makes an important contribution to connectivity, which I view as an important issue for rural Ireland, whether it be access to...