Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the number of areas that have RAPID status; the number of areas that have CLÁR status; the funding that has being allocated to each area; the proposal to further extend such status to other areas; the research carried out by his Department as to the effectiveness of such schemes; the future plans in relation to both schemes as a results of such research; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26504/07]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The RAPID Programme operates in 46 designated urban areas and the CLÁR Programme is available across 23 counties that have suffered significant levels of depopulation. I intend to examine the full updated Census data when it is available, and its application to RAPID areas, over the next few months. There are no plans to further extend the CLÁR areas which have been reviewed twice already since 2002.

An independent national evaluation of the RAPID Programme was published in June 2006. This report is available on Pobal's website at http://www.pobal/media/Publications. The recommendations of this evaluation are currently being implemented. A Value for Money review of the RAPID and CLÁR leverage schemes is scheduled to be undertaken during 2008.

Further details of the programmes and the funding provided under each are set out in the attached appendices.

Appendix 1 — RAPID

The RAPID Programme aims to ensure that priority attention is given to tackling the spatial concentration of poverty and social exclusion within the 46 designated RAPID areas. As I have indicated to the House on a number of occasions, it is a matter for individual Departments to report progress under the RAPID programme. In support, Pobal collects data from each RAPID area in respect of funding allocations received by projects from Government Departments and local state agencies. The latest data in respect of the programme is available on Pobal's website under the RAPID section (http://www.pobal.ie/ live/RAPID). The Deputy may find it helpful to access this information. I understand that full data in respect of the year 2007 will not be collected until early 2008.

I initiated the leverage schemes in 2004 in order to support small-scale projects identified locally by the Area Implementation Teams in each of the RAPID areas. These schemes are co-funded by the relevant agencies and fund projects that focus on estate enhancement, graffiti removal, traffic calming, CCTV, health and sports facilities, and the provision of playgrounds. Earlier this year I agreed to co-fund the provision of facilities in schools located in, or mainly servicing children from, RAPID areas.

Each of the 46 RAPID areas are allocated €66,000 under the playgrounds leverage scheme, €100,000 under the traffic calming measures leverage scheme and €100,000 under the Housing Estate Enhancement Leverage scheme. Differing levels of funding are allocated in each RAPID area under the Health Co-fund and Sports Capital Programme. The total allocation by my Department for each leverage scheme is set out in the table below.

In addition, I have provided €2m to support initiatives in RAPID areas undertaken by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to install community CCTV and remove graffiti.

Under the initial round of funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund approximately €32 million was approved for projects based within RAPID areas. Following enactment of the Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Act 2005, funding totalling over €19m has been ring-fenced to support priority projects in RAPID areas in 2006 and 2007.

Appendix 2 — CLÁR

The CLÁR Programme (Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais) is a targeted investment programme in rural areas. It was launched in October 2001 and the areas originally selected for inclusion in the Programme were those which had suffered an average population loss of 50% between 1926 to 1996, with the exception of the Cooley Peninsula (which was included based on the serious difficulties caused there by Food and Mouth disease). The total population benefiting was 284,000 across 17 counties. Following analysis of the 2002 census data, the CLÁR areas were extended in January 2003 with the total population covered increasing to 362,000 across 18 counties.

I announced a further extension of the Programme in April 2006 to include areas with an average population loss of 35% between 1926 and 2002. This resulted in a doubling of the population benefiting from the Programme to nearly 727,000. The total number of counties now covered is 23 with Kildare, Wicklow and Dublin now being the only counties not included in CLÁR.

The Programme provides funding and co-funding to Government Departments, State Agencies and Local Authorities to accelerate investment in selected priority developments. These investments support physical, economic and social infrastructure across a variety of measures. The measures introduced under the Programme reflect the priorities identified by the communities in the selected areas.

Funding is allocated on a measure basis rather than on a County basis. The only measure which is allocated based on demographics is the Non National Roads measure, where the allocation to each Local Authority is determined by the county's percentage of the total population in CLÁR areas with each local authority receiving a minimum grant allocation of €30,000.

In 2006 €23.06m was spent across the various measures. In the years 2002-2006, €71m was expended on investments under the programme along with related public and private expenditure in the region of €61m. A budget of €18.6m has been allocated to the programme for 2007 of which €9.46m has been spent to date.

The table below gives details of the current position.