Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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46. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of each project allocated funds under the rural regeneration and development fund; if he is satisfied that each financial allocation will be drawn down by year end 2019; if not, the status of the funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43829/19]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund seeks to support ambitious and strategic projects which have the potential to transform rural economies and communities. The Government has committed €1 billion over 10 years to the Fund and €315 million is allocated to the Fund for the period 2019-2022.

Following the conclusion of the first call under the Fund in February 2019, a total of 84 successful projects had been announced, with funding of €86m provided from the Fund to support projects worth a total of €117m.

Following the announcement of the successful projects, my Department engaged with each lead party to complete due diligence requirements.  Contractual arrangements were also drawn up with the release of funding based on the achievement of key milestones in the projects. 

In this regard, significant progress is already being made on the implementation of successful projects.  A number of the projects have already reached their first milestone and had funding released.  To date, €16 million has been drawn down from the Fund by 29 separate projects.  I expect that payments from the Fund will continue to accelerate over the coming weeks and months as further milestones are achieved across the other projects.