Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

538. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when a decision will be made on an application submitted by Cork County Council for funding for the Kanturk relief road, Kanturk, County Cork under the rural regeneration and development fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49175/18]

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

The first call for applications for the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund closed at the end of September. €1 billion is committed to the Fund over a 10 year period to support rural regeneration, economic development and to help build strong communities.

There was an excellent response to the first call, with nearly 300 applications received. Applications for the Fund are currently being examined by the Project Advisory Board, made up of representatives from key Government Departments and external experts, which was established to oversee the assessment process. Category 1 "shovel ready" projects have been prioritised in the assessment process and Category 2 projects - those which need development funding to become potential Category 1 applications in future calls for applications - will be considered thereafter.

Following receipt of the first recommendations arising from the above assessment process, I made the first in a series of announcements of successful Category 1 projects under the Fund on 23rd November 2018. Details of the successful projects are available on my Department's website, .

As the work of the Project Advisory Board continues, I expect to be in a position to announce further rounds of approved projects in early 2019. These announcements will cover both shovel-ready Category 1 projects and the project development work in Category 2. Therefore I would expect that a decision on the project referred to would issue early in the New Year.