Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A fund of €10m has been made available from the proposed carry-over of capital savings in 2015 to be used in 2016 to fund a new initiative to accelerate the taking-in-charge of estates, irrespective of the wider development context that they are located within.

Local authorities were invited to submit proposals based on an indicative allocation of €3.5m proposed to be made available to seven local authorities (Cork County, Clare, Donegal, Galway County, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford County Councils) for demonstration projects under Measure 2 relating to housing estates served by Developer Provided Infrastructure (DPI) based on an earlier pilot study, although consideration may also be given to other counties within the indicative funding available.

The experience gained through the initiative in 2016 and associated demonstration projects is intended to establish a co-ordinated taking-in-charge programme to progressively address the issue on a multi-annual basis, in the light of available local authority, Irish Water, bond and other funding sources and the general government financial position.

Consideration of the submissions put forward by the local authorities on the basis of the provisional funding levels available will be weighted towards those local authorities that demonstrate a high level of collaborative problem solving and leveraging of complimentary funding from developer, bond provider, receiver or other sources.

My Department is currently considering all applications and I expect to be in a position to award funding allocations to local authorities shortly.