Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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602. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the reason a project (details supplied) was not approved for funding under the town and village renewal scheme 2018; the reason the application was not approved; if there is an appeal system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42361/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The 2018 Town and Village Renewal Scheme was launched in April of this year and Local Authorities were invited to submit up to 12 applications each for consideration by my Department. There was a strong level of interest in the scheme and 290 applications in total were received for funding of almost €28 million.

The selection of projects under the Scheme was by means of a competitive process and details of the marking scheme were made available to the Local Authorities with the application forms.

On 5th October, I approved funding of €21.3 million for 224 projects under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. This was the maximum number of projects which could be approved within the budget available to me.

11 projects in Co. Laois were approved for funding to the value of €872,000. Unfortunately, the project referred to by the Deputy did not achieve a high enough score to be funded under this year's scheme.

There is no appeal system in place for this scheme. However, my Department's officials are available to provide feedback on the application, which may assist the Local Authority with future applications under the scheme.