Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is the first I have been in the Chamber when the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, has been here. I congratulate him on what I think is one of the best jobs in government, which relates to local government. I know he has much experience in that and I wish him well.

I raise the issue of urban regeneration. There has been much talk about it.Funding under the urban regeneration and development fund comes under three strands, namely, strands 1, 2 and 3. There is a common problem. The Minister of State will know the country pretty well. I will single out a number of places. Councillor Annemarie Ryan has been in contact with me about Tipperary town. Half of the place is empty. I was there last week. I will also mention Gort in County Galway, Athy and Monasterevin in County Kildare, Fermoy in County Cork, Limerick city, Tralee, Longford, Navan in County Meath and Boyle in Roscommon. When you go around these towns - and they are towns, not villages - you will see great dereliction. Many of them are market towns that have beautiful architecture and the potential for beautiful public realms and urban spaces.

We talk about funding. I welcome the funding; I am not here to knock it. It is fantastic. I will mention one of the travesties in this area. A circular that was issued yesterday to all of our county managers, Circular URDF 01/2023. On page 2, it is stated that "While just under €1.5bn was originally allocated under Calls 1 and 2 only €144m had been drawn down by local authorities". That raises questions. I know the Minister of State is not here to cover that particular issue today but it is a real concern.

What am I saying? I am saying that our city and county councils are telling us that all of this is bypassing the little villages and towns and that we need to focus on the likes of Schull in County Cork and other smaller towns and villages. I think of the great potential of Ennistymon. It is not good enough to say that, unless a town has a population of 10,000, we are not prepared to fund it. I believe the reverse. I believe in going to the smaller little towns and villages and getting them right. The others will have to compete with them while they grow. That is a really important point.

I am conscious of time but I want to draw the Minister of State's attention to the fact that the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, of which I am a member, commissioned a major study in respect of town and village urban regeneration last year. We made 39 recommendations, many of which have not been implemented. As a new Minister of State, I ask Deputy O'Donnell to look at that again and to see how we can implement these recommendations. We have wonderful towns and villages. Cities tend to be bigger and can manage better. They can take a more collective approach with regard to funding. Let us get these communities up and vibrant. For communities to be vibrant, we have to people living and working in them and we have to build them. All over this country, there is a necklace of wonderful little villages. Surely we can focus on them.

I ask the Minister of State to please look at this circular. It is many pages long. You would need degrees in English and engineering to master it. Can somebody provide a simpler version? I circulated it to all of our city and county councillors today. I had to read it ten times myself. Some 12 or 13 people came back to me to ask what it was all about. Can we simplify the documentation and the language within it? If local authorities are not spending the money to rejuvenate these towns, we should give it to somebody else. Let us not have a situation in which Government funds are not drawn down. I wish the Minister of State well with this project.