Written answers
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Department of Rural and Community Development
Rural Regeneration and Development Fund Administration
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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32. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to reopen the rural regeneration fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50496/19]
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.
The first call for applications to the Fund closed in September 2018. There was a large response to the first call, with 280 applications received under Categories 1 and 2.
Category 1 relates to projects which have all the necessary planning and other consents in place and which are ready to proceed, while Category 2 projects are those which require further project development support to enable them to become ready to apply under Category 1 in future calls.
On foot of the first call, 38 successful Category 1 projects and 46 Category 2 projects were announced, with funding of €86m provided from the Fund to support projects worth €117m.
The second call for Category 1 applications for the Fund closed on 6th August 2019. There was an excellent response from across the country and my Department received 69 applications for funding. I announced the successful projects on the 6thNovember 2019. €62 million in funding was allocated to 26 projects around the country, worth a total value of €95 million.
I expect to announce the second call for Category 2 applications before the end of 2019. A further category 1 call will follow in early 2020.
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