Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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489. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when a decision will be made to approve additional funding for Loughrea town hall; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20602/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns and villages and rural areas across Ireland.

To date, 215 projects have been approved for funding of €395 million for projects costing €542 million.

Projects which emerge as successful from calls for applications to the Fund are initially approved for funding in principle and then progress through a further comprehensive approval process before the final confirmation of funding is provided by my Department. At each stage of this approval process, the project is reviewed by my Department to ensure it continues to meet its stated objectives, including financial sustainability.

It is open to project lead parties to make a case to the Department for additional funding if the cost of the project increases. Any request for additional funding is examined on a case by case basis by my Department.

The Regeneration Loughrea project was approved for funding of €1,628,879 for a project costing €2,171,838 from the second call for Category 1 applications under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund.

I understand that the estimated cost of the project has significantly increased since the project was approved for funding in principle and a request for additional funding for the project has been submitted to my Department by the lead party, Galway County Council.

My Department is currently reviewing the case for additional funding for the project and will be engaging further with Galway County Council to progress the request in the coming weeks.