Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Six rural towns were included in a pilot initiative which I announced last week to look at how we can increase the number of people living in town centres.

Earlier this year, a Steering Group chaired by my Department was established to examine what would be the most effective way to encourage increased residential occupancy in our rural towns and villages. A lot of consideration has been given by the Steering Group, as well as by Departmental officials and other stakeholders, to the best approach to deliver on this objective.

The consensus was that the best way to proceed was through the development of a small number of well-planned pilot schemes that take a holistic approach to encouraging people to live in town centres.

The initiative which I announced will allow a number of Local Authorities to develop and test different models which are appropriate to towns of different sizes and in different locations. The learnings from this pilot will help to provide an indication as to what might work well for similar types of town on a wider scale.

The towns who have been selected for the pilot initiative are: Boyle, Co. Roscommon; Callan, Co. Kilkenny; Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo; Banagher, Co. Offaly; Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan; and Cappoquin, Co Waterford.

These towns were identified through consultation and meetings with a number of Local Authorities who made contact directly with my Department expressing an interest in becoming involved in the initiative, or towns which would provide a good mix of size and location for the pilot.

Each of the pilot towns will now develop proposals which they feel are important to increase the number of people living in their centres. Each relevant Local Authority will receive technical assistance of up to €100,000 from my Department to progress the pilots.

The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund will provide an opportunity to take the emerging ideas to implementation stage, if they prove to be effective.