Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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301. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the URDF plan for Carlow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11242/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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In line with the objectives of the National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) is currently providing part-funding to applicant-led projects, enabling more compact and sustainable development within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and large towns.

To this end, the URDF has already provisionally allocated in excess of €1.6 billion under two separate calls for proposals since its inception in 2018. Providing assistance to 132 proposals, comprising of almost 400 subprojects, URDF projects are now active in every local authority area in the country.

In 2021, following a second call for proposals under the URDF, I announced a provisional allocation of €15,611,051 in URDF support for Carlow County Council’s Public Realm and Pedestrian Linkage Project in Carlow Town. This Call 2 project will provide Carlow Town with accessible public spaces, improving town centre linkages and increasing pedestrian mobility between the town Centre, Carlow College and the Railway Station. The project has been developed from the Council's Masterplan for the town centre, for which URDF support of €580,000 towards technical assistance was provided under the URDF’s first call for proposals in 2018.

In June 2022, my Department approved a Preliminary Business Case for the project together with an increase in the URDF support of €1,473,976. This represents Decision Gate 1 in the project lifecycle of the Public Spending Code. In addition, my Department has recently agreed to the Council’s proposal to progress the works through the remaining Decision Gates as two separate subprojects - the Town Centre Public Realm and the Rail Link - as in this instance, it represents the most cost efficient and timely way to deliver the overall project. The Council is now approved to proceed with the development of a Detailed Project Brief and Procurement Strategy for each subproject for submission to the Department as part of the approval process for the next decision gate (Decision Gate 2 – Pre Tender Approval).

While my Department works closely and communicates regularly with Carlow County Council in respect of project development, responsibility for the advancement of these URDF supported projects through the various stages of planning, development and completion is, in the first instance, a matter for Carlow County Council. Accordingly, detailed queries regarding the projects should be directed to the Council.

It should be noted that all URDF supported projects must be carefully developed and managed by the Sponsoring Agency in accordance with the normal conditions and arrangements that apply to public sector managed projects including, exercising appropriate cost control and delivering projects as approved, and in full compliance with the Public Spending Code.