Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

529. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the specific projects which will receive the €53 million in extra capital expenditure in 2019 as outlined in Annex 1 of the National Development Plan 2018-2027; the amount each project will receive of this €53 million in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31280/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The National Development Plan has provided for a new €1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund to enable towns, villages and outlying rural areas to grow sustainably and support delivery of the strategic objectives of the National Planning Framework.

Funding of €315 million has been provided over the period 2019 to 2022, which will allow both further activity under existing initiatives as well as the introduction of new investment initiatives under the Fund to be supported during this period.

Details on the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund are available online at the following .

There are no specific projects assigned to this Fund in the NDP; instead the Plan makes clear that allocations from the Fund will be made on a competitive bid based approach.

On July 4th, I announced a first call for proposals under the Fund and invited submissions under two categories:

Category 1: “Ready-to-Go” proposals, or initial phases of projects which can be commenced in 2019, which have the necessary consents (e.g. planning) in place, are at an advanced stage of design, are in a position to satisfy value-for-money requirements in accordance with the Public Spending Code, and are procurement ready.

Category 2: Proposals that have clear potential and quantifiable objectives but require further development to enable them to be potentially submitted as Category 1 proposals in subsequent funding calls.

The deadline for the receipt of applications under the first call for proposals is 27 September 2018.

It is envisaged that an initial announcement of approved projects will be made in late October/early November 2018 following the assessment process, and that projects (or project development in the case of Category 2 proposals) will commence in early 2019. It is expected a further call for proposals will be announced in mid-2019 and that subsequent calls will be announced on an annual basis thereafter.