Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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267. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the €10 million allocated to urban renewal and regeneration as outlined in budget 2018; the amount that has been spent; the way in which the money has been spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27245/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Further to the announcement in Budget 2018 of allocated expenditure of €10m in the current year under the proposed Urban Renewal Fund, the Government has since launched Project Ireland 2040 which includes a €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) focusing on cities and towns in excess of 10,000 in population, as well as a complementary €1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) for smaller settlements and rural areas.

The €2 billion URDF is aimed at securing more compact, sustainable growth in Ireland's five cities and other larger urban centres. This funding, separate and in addition to normal sectoral funding streams, is designed to leverage a greater proportion of residential and commercial development, supported by infrastructure, services and amenities, within the existing built-up areas of our larger urban settlements. The URDF will be a competitive bid-based programme that will operate on a multi-annual basis over the period to 2027. 

An outline of the approach that the Government intends to take in relation to the URDF will be published shortly with URDF bids for funding invited on an initial three-year period to 2021, with the scope for further bids in 2019 and subsequently over the lifetime of the National Development Plan. 

Having regard to the potential for synergies and overlaps between the URDF and the proposed Urban Renewal Fund, which it is envisaged will have a funding stream of €50m over a four-year period, the scope of the latter scheme is currently being reviewed with a likely specific targeted focus on tackling dereliction and vacancy in our larger urban settlements. It is intended that the details of the scheme will be published as soon as possible after the publication of the details and call for proposals under the URDF, which will issue in the coming weeks.