Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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430. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress on the actions to date for each of the 276 actions in the Action Plan for Rural Development; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16217/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Action Plan for Rural Development, Realising our Rural Potential, was launched on 23rd January 2017. The Action Plan contains 276 actions for delivery across Government, State agencies and other bodies to support the economic and social progress of rural Ireland. Each action has been assigned to a lead body which will be responsible for implementation of the action within a definite timescale, as set out in the Plan.

Realising our Rural Potential is a three year plan to be delivered over the period up to 2020 and actions will commence at different points over that period. However, priority actions for delivery over each 6-month period will be identified on a rolling basis and reported on at the end of the 6-month period. Progress Reports on the implementation of the actions will be published twice yearly, with the first report due by the end of July 2017.

Progress on the implementation of the individual actions, and of the Plan as a whole, will be overseen by a Monitoring Committee, which I chair. The first meeting of the Monitoring Committee took place on 23rd March 2017. Progress on the delivery of the Plan will also be considered by the Cabinet Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs on a regular basis.

While the Action Plan was published less than three months ago, there has already been good progress on a number of the actions. For example, I recently announced capital funding of more than €9 million for arts and culture centres, of which over 80% are in rural areas. Minister Ring launched the 2017 CLÁR programme on 31st March, and I will shortly be launching the Town and Village Renewal Scheme for this year.

In addition, Minister Varadkar has increased the number of places on the Rural Social Scheme by 500 places, and Minister Creed recently announced the award of over €1.8 million in grants to 19 seafood enterprises under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Operational Programme for the seafood sector.