Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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277. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which the various towns throughout the country and in County Kildare have been earmarked for benefit from the recently announced Action Plan for Rural Development; if a priority list has been set out; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9485/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Rural Development contains a number of measures which have the objective of rejuvenating Ireland’s rural towns and villages to make them more attractive places in which to live and work and to increase their tourism potential.

From my own Department’s perspective, I have secured funding of €12 million for an enhanced Town and Village Renewal scheme this year. This scheme will be launched shortly and towns and villages to be considered under the scheme, including in County Kildare, will be selected through an application and assessment process.  The scheme will be funded by my Department and administered by Local Authorities. Full details of the scheme and the application process will be made available when the scheme is launched.

My Department will also provide funding to support towns and villages through the CLÁR programme which has a budget of €5 million this year, and through the Built Heritage Investment Scheme and the Structures at Risk Fund, which have a combined budget of €2.8 million for 2017.

The Heritage Council will be administering a Heritage and Community Grants programme of €0.7 million, along with a historic towns programme of €0.6 million to develop and expand the on-going work of the Department’s Historic Towns Initiative and the Irish Walled Towns Network.

Our towns and villages are the heart of our rural communities, and through these investments and other initiatives across Government we can help to make them more attractive places in which to live and to work.