Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Project Ireland 2040, which was launched by the Government on 16 February 2018, is the overarching policy and planning framework for the social, economic and cultural development of Ireland. It includes a detailed capital investment plan for the period 2018 to 2027, the national development plan, NDP, for the same period and the 20-year national planning framework, NPF.

The principles of the NPF are underpinned by the NDP, a ten-year €116 billion capital investment programme. The National Development Plan 2018-2027 established four new funds, with a combined allocation of €4 billion to 2027. The urban regeneration development fund, URDF, has an allocation of €2 billion to 2027, primarily to support the NPF's growth enablers for the five cities and other large urban centres. The URDF, which was launched in 2018, is providing part-funding for local authority-led projects that will enable a greater proportion of residential and mixed-use development to be delivered within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and large towns while also ensuring that more parts of our urban areas become attractive and vibrant places people can choose to live and work in as well as to invest in and visit.

In 2019, approval in principle and provisional funding allocations issued in respect of the 87 major projects across the country approved under the first call. The URDF-supported capital programme has been very well received and already the URDF is providing assistance for this pipeline of major projects that will continue to regenerate and rejuvenate Ireland's five cities and other large towns.

Under the second call for the URDF, which was launched earlier this year, 76 proposals were received, with every local authority submitting at least one application. These included a proposal from Longford County Council in respect of the Camlin quarter project. Many of these proposals are of significant scale and complexity and require careful assessment. This assessment process is in train and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage intends to soon announce a new tranche of approved projects, which will augment the existing pipeline of projects from the first call and contribute to the achievement of commitments under the programme for Government and the objectives of the national planning framework and Project Ireland 2040.