Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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141. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if further discussions and or meetings have taken place between his Department and Louth County Council in respect of progressing a further appeal or new application for the Port Access Northern Cross Route URDF application; the details of same; if he expects to allocate a further tranche of URDF funding in the coming months; if so, the timeline; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38534/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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At my Department's invitation Louth County Council requested a meeting for further feedback on its Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF) application in respect of the Port Access Northern Cross Route (PANCR) proposal which was unsuccessful under both Call 1 and Call 2 of the URDF. The meeting between officials of my Department and officials of Louth County Council took place on 25^thJune.

At the meeting my officials explained that the main focus of Call 2 of the URDF was on supporting integrated development proposals that targeted regeneration and redevelopment within the existing footprint of the urban area in question. My officials further explained that while there was no issue with the quality of the application submitted by Louth County Council unfortunately the PANCR proposal simply does not align sufficiently with the core objectives of the URDF and so was not approved for URDF support.

However, acknowledging the strategic regional importance of Drogheda, my officials are available to assist and support Louth County Council in its consideration and development of alternative integrated development proposals for the Town, which might attract URDF support in the future.

My Department's immediate focus is now on the early advancement of the recently announced €1.3 billion countrywide programme of proposals approved under Call 2 of the URDF. This being the case there are no plans at present for a further call for proposals.