Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

111. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of funding detailed in the action plan for rural development that has been spent to date in 2017; and the number of persons or organisations that have financially benefitted from the town and village renewal scheme, a framework for town centre revival, the regional arts and cultural centres under the arts and culture capital scheme and the CLÁR programme. [27587/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Action Plan for Rural Development provides a framework for the coordinated delivery of over 270 actions across a range of Government Departments, State agencies and other bodies to support the economic and social development of rural areas. These actions will see a multi-million Euro investment in schemes, programmes and projects which will benefit rural Ireland. Details of expenditure incurred in relation to individual actions in the Plan would be a matter for the relevant lead Department or body delivering the action. However, from my own Department’s perspective, the Town and Village Renewal Scheme was launched in April last and will provide funding of €20 million to up to 300 rural towns and villages over the next 12 months. The closing date for receipt of applications under this scheme is 30^thJune 2017; therefore no expenditure has yet been incurred under the 2017 scheme. In 2016, just under €10 million was allocated to 170 projects under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme.

Earlier this year, I announced details of more than €9 million in capital funding for 62 arts and culture centres across the country. This scheme will target investment at a range of different facilities, including arts centres, theatres, galleries and museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces. A full list of organisations to benefit from funding under Stream 1 and 2 of the Arts and Cultural Capital Scheme 2016-2018 is available on my Department's website at .

I also recently announced a new small capital grants Scheme (Stream 3) which will provide grants of up to €20,000 to not-for-profit organisations with a defined arts and cultural remit. Organisations with artists' studios were also eligible to apply under this new scheme, which had a closing date of 16 June 2017.

The 2017 CLÁR programme was launched in March, with applications invited under four different Measures. A total of just under €7 million has been allocated to approximately 230 projects across the four Measures over the last number of weeks. Details of the approved projects are available on my Department’s website at . Payments will, in general, be made to the successful applicants on a phased basis when the projects have commenced and have made a satisfactory level of progress.