Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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278. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will ensure a tidy towns grant is awarded to a group (details supplied). [45479/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I was delighted to be in a position to launch the 2021 Supervalu TidyTowns competition on 21st May last and look forward to the award ceremony later in the year. In my view, TidyTowns is a wonderful competition. It reaches in to practically every town and village in the country and promotes a sense of community and identity as well as instilling a sense of pride in that home town or village.

Last December, I announced funding of €1 million to help TidyTowns groups to prepare for the 2021 competition. This translated to a provision of up to €1,000 to every eligible TidyTowns group in the country and represented a top-up to the €1.4 million distributed to groups at the end of 2019.

In order to be eligible for this funding, a group must have entered the competition in any of the years 2017, 2018 or 2019. The group to which the Deputy refers had not entered the competition since 2009 and was not therefore eligible for the funding.

However, I have reviewed the position based on a review of entries to the competition this year. I am happy to say that any new and active TidyTowns Group that did not enter the competition in the period 2017-2019, but who are confirmed as having entered this year’s competition, are now eligible to apply for the €1,000 grant. Eligible groups will be contacted very shortly regarding the application process for this funding.