Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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247. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the way in which the rural regeneration and development fund which will provide new funding streams for rural towns, villages and outlying rural areas is being delivered in Tipperary town and west County Tipperary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46358/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The first call for applications for the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund closed at the end of September.  €1 billion is committed to this fund over a 10 year period to support rural economic development and help build strong communities. €55 million is allocated to the fund in Budget 2019.

The objective of the Fund is to drive coordinated investment between Departments, Agencies, Local Authorities and other public bodies working together  with local communities and private sector to transform our rural towns and villages and surrounding areas.

The Fund is intended to support ambitious projects which can support rural regeneration and development and are outside the scope of existing schemes. 

Key outcomes should be supporting community and economic development in rural Ireland.  

The types of activity which can be supported by the fund are varied, and include the following:

- addressing infrastructural deficits to support town centre housing or commercial development

- infrastructure that improves accessibility, supporting walking, cycling and public transport links but also improvements to roads, bridges and car parking facilities that encourage footfall 

- development of areas, sites and buildings for community facilities 

- public amenity facilities

- projects to support job creation

Full details on all types of activities which could potentially be supported by the Fund are in the information booklet published on the Departments web-site - drcd.ie

Information sessions were also hosted by my Department throughout the country for those interested in making applications.  

I am pleased to say that there was a great response to the first call for proposals with 290 applications received. Of these 125 were for category 1 "shovel ready" projects and the other 165 were for category 2 projects - those which need development funding to become potential category 1 applications in future calls for applications. I am informed by my officials that 6 applications for funding have been received from Tipperary.

Assessment criteria are published and the applications are now being assessed by a project advisory board. The board includes representatives from key Government Departments and external experts. 

By the end of this month I am expecting to receive recommendations from the project advisory board on the first group of category 1 projects for funding. 

Further announcements on successful category 1 and category 2 projects will follow.

I am also expecting to announce a further call for proposals in 2019.