Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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678. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the amount allocated to town centre health checks per annum; the number of checks undertaken by county; and the number planned. [54144/17]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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While there is no specific scheme available within my Department to fund town centre health checks, the preparation and development of such health checks are eligible for support under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme which is operated by my Department.

I recently approved funding of €21.6 million to 281 rural towns and villages under the 2017 Town and Village Renewal Scheme, with an emphasis on projects that focus on improving the economic development of those towns and villages. A number of these projects included proposals for the development of town health checks and town plans. As these proposals were generally part of a larger initiative, the precise details of the amount of funding allocated to health checks by the projects in question is not available to my Department at this stage.

In addition to the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, assistance may be available for feasibility studies under the LEADER Programme for this type of initiative, subject to certain conditions. The Local Action Groups which administer the LEADER programme would be in a position to provide further details of supports available.