Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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260. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the functions and responsibilities that will be transferred from his Department to the Department of housing, planning and local government. [15733/16]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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268. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the new Department of housing, planning and local government will officially be established. [15943/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 260 and 268 together.

The Rural Affairs and Social Enterprise (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2016 was approved by Government on 8 June 2016 and took effect from 9 June 2016. This Order provides for the transfer of certain community-related functions from my Department to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht which will be renamed as the Department of Rural Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht. These functions relate to the LEADER programme; the CLÁR programme; the Town and Village Renewal Scheme; the Tidy Towns scheme; the Western Development Commission; the implementation of the report of the Commission on the Economic Development of Rural Areas; the dormant accounts fund and social enterprise.

Responsibility for the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) and other community-related functions, including the PEACE programme, the scheme to support national organisations and support for volunteering, will remain with my Department.

Responsibility for environmental functions including in relation to climate, waste, resource efficiency, air quality and environmental radiation policies will transfer to the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources which will be renamed as the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Marine planning and foreshore functions will remain with my Department. The statutory transfer of functions process to give effect to these changes in respect of the environment portfolio is underway, with the aim of completing the transfer as soon as possible.

My Department will retain responsibility for matters relating to housing, planning, local government and community, and water. It will be renamed, by Order, as the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government as soon as the statutory process of transferring the environment functions is complete.