Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the extent to which it is expected or intended to enhance the scope and scale of activities under the RAPID and CLÁR programmes in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41667/09]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The RAPID Programme aims to ensure that priority attention is given to tackling the spatial concentration of poverty and social exclusion within the designated RAPID areas nationally. Following an independent evaluation of the RAPID programme commissioned in 2006, it was recommended that, in order to further develop and enhance the programme through the lifetime of the 2007-2013 NDP, it should be focussed on seven Strategic Themes: Community Safety and Anti-Social Behaviour, Family Support, Youth Support, Physical Environment, Education, Health and Employment/Training. This recommendation has been pursued and the strategic themes have been established across RAPID areas.

Separately, in order to ensure the continued relevance of the Programme and the designated RAPID areas, I commissioned, through POBAL, a study to develop/update small area deprivation indices based on an analysis of the most recent census data. I initiated this review last year because from my experience of visiting communities around the country, I felt that some areas that were not in the Programme might be eligible now. Based on the study, I proposed the designation of five provincial towns as new RAPID areas; this was accepted by Cabinet in May 2009. The study also indicated that minor adjustments to the boundaries of a number of existing RAPID areas would be justified and this process is still ongoing. I hope to have the whole process completed early in 2010.

The Government decision of May 2009 included Ballina, Co. Mayo, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath and Rathkeale, Co. Limerick in the RAPID Programme. The Revised Programme of Government of October 2009 sets out the Governments commitment to 'Continue to develop the RAPID Programme that is giving local communities in the most disadvantaged urban areas a real voice for change for the better in their own communities. We will continue to prioritise initiatives like the RAPID programme, that make a very real and tangible improvement to people's everyday lives.

The CLÁR Programme was set up as an innovative programme to deal with infrastructural deficits in the most peripheral communities in Ireland that had suffered significant population loss. As the Deputy will be aware, measures for roads, water, sewerage, schools, and health services are among the many initiatives run under the CLÁR Programme. For the future, the Renewed Programme for Government has identified the need to continue to invest in disadvantaged rural communities through CLÁR, and will do this by focussing the programme on priority local needs in targeted CLÁR areas. The CLÁR Programme has constantly sought to address the new challenges faced by small rural communities and has been continuously refocused to deal with the most urgent infrastructural deficits. This approach will continue to inform my delivery of the CLÁR Programme. In this regard, I will examine options to deliver on this programme for Government commitment in the context of the resources available to me in 2010 and beyond.