Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 211: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the maximum grant aid amounts available to persons running a grocery shop in a rural, Gaeltacht area where the building urgently needs re-roofing and the installation of new windows; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3249/07]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts, assistance is available to qualified applicants in a Gaeltacht area towards the construction of new houses and the improvement of existing houses. A shopkeeper may qualify for an improvement grant under the Acts, which could include re-roofing and the installation of new windows if the place of residence and business are under the one roof, but any such grant will be confined to the residential part of the building. Detailed information regarding the Gaeltacht housing scheme can be found on my Department's website at www.pobail.ie.

I understand from Údarás na Gaeltachta that, while its Strategic Development Plan 2005-2010 recognises the need for a network of small industries and service providers, grant assistance is not available to local shops. Given the proliferation of retail businesses over the years without recourse to grant assistance, and in the context also of the possible implications for State aid which could attach to the provision of such assistance, I am satisfied that Údarás has taken an appropriate line in this matter.