Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator O'Loughlin for affording me the opportunity to speak about the blueway.

The rural regeneration and development fund was established under the National Development Plan 2018-2027 to provide investment for ambitious projects in towns and villages with populations of fewer than 10,000 people and outlying areas. It will deliver on the national strategic objective of strengthened rural economies and communities and achieve sustainable economic and social development in these areas. The rural regeneration and development fund is pivotal in delivering on the objectives of Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, which sets out an ambitious blueprint for realising the enormous potential in our rural towns, villages and communities. To date, funding has been allocated to projects in the areas of town and village regeneration, enterprise development, tourism development, digital and co-working initiatives, libraries and community facilities. Many projects are delivering across a number of sectors such as, for instance, providing libraries, co-working facilities or much needed community facilities in repurposed town sites or previously unused heritage buildings. Projects that have been supported have a strong focus on regeneration, ensuring that our rural towns and villages and the communities and businesses in them will benefit from returning footfall. In that regard, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I believe the projects completed with the assistance of the fund will deliver significant impacts across rural Ireland, supporting sustainable communities, economic development and job creation and will help to deliver on the long-standing goal of rebalancing growth throughout the regions. In addition, the investment provided will support rural Ireland by providing a much-needed stimulus for the economy in rural areas while also putting in place the necessary facilities to ensure rural towns, villages and communities can prosper over the months and years ahead.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, announced the successful projects from the fourth call for category 1 applications to the fund on 10 November 2022. Category 1 relates to large-scale ambitious capital projects that have all necessary planning and other consents in place and are ready to proceed. Funding of €115 million was announced for 23 projects worth a total of €162 million. The scale of this announcement will guarantee that there is a pipeline of ambitious projects that are ready to be delivered over the coming years.

The Barrow blueway project was allocated funding of more than €5 million from the second call for category 1 funding in 2019. The project is developing a 46 km stretch of the Barrow blueway, located along the Grand Canal-Barrow line from Lowtown to Athy in County Kildare, taking in Vicarstown in County Laois. The blueway will be an exciting recreational resource for the communities nearby and visitors to the areas, with the potential to deliver significant tourism and economic benefits while also securing the natural amenities and ecosystem which the canal provides. I understand the project is progressing well and will be completed this year. An example of another transformative project in Athy is the Athy food, drink and skills innovation hub, which was allocated funding of more than €4 million. This project will repurpose a vacant building to deliver a state-of-the-art food, drink and skills innovation hub that will provide a dedicated space for enterprise development, job creation and training in the region. The hub will contribute to the economic regeneration, strengthening and building of resilience in Athy. The rural regeneration and development fund alone has now invested more than €395 million in funding for 215 projects worth a total of €542 million. It is a truly transformative level of funding and will make a real and lasting difference in rural communities throughout Ireland.