Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide details of all funding provided by his Department to Clonmel town under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23568/24]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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265. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide details of all funding provided by his Department to Nenagh town under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23569/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 264 and 265 together.

A flagship element of Project Ireland 2040, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) was one of four new funds established under the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018 – 2027. Launched in 2018 with committed Exchequer funding of €2 billion, the review of the NDP in 2021 extended the URDF to 2030.

To date, there have been three rounds of funding provided under the URDF with more than €1.9 billion allocated so far. While Call 1 and 2 was for specific proposals, the latest round of funding (Call 3) is supporting a programme of acquisitions in each local authority to address long term vacancy and dereliction. Under Call 1 and Call 2 there were 132 proposals, comprising almost 400 projects, approved for funding.

An interactive GIS Story Map site, containing details of all successful URDF projects under Call 1 and Call 2, was recently launched to give elected representatives and members of the public access up to date information on all URDF supported projects at a Local Authority level. The site is available through the URDF site www.gov.ie/URDF or directly via the following link: www.experience.arcgis.com/experience/98a739a585944cf887f2dffe54c4f129/

With regard to Tipperary County Council’s URDF Programme, over €30 million has been provisionally allocated to the Council’s three successful applications under the first two calls for proposals. This includes a current allocation of €15,104,741 in URDF support under Call 1 for their Kickham Barracks and the Regional Sports Hub project in Clonmel and €9,525,000 in URDF support under Call 2 for their Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Energy project in Nenagh.

Officially opened in 2023, the Regional Sports Hub and Kickham Barracks project saw the regeneration of the former Barracks site into a civic, cultural and educational campus quarter and the development of the existing Technological University of the Shannon campus on the Frank Drohan Road into a sports hub, providing shared facilities (athletics track, BMX track, playground, walking/cycling track) for clubs and schools.

In 2021, following the second call for proposals under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, I announced a provisional allocation of €9,525,000 in URDF support for Tipperary County Council's successful proposal in Nenagh – A Pathway to a Low-Carbon Society: A Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Energy. Building on other regeneration initiatives in the town, this project will see the delivery an educational campus, with residential and enterprise uses, along with public realm enhancements to the public spaces.

It is a condition of URDF support that advancement of proposals/projects must abide by the Infrastructure Guidelines (formally the Public Spending Code). The Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Energy project has received Preliminary Business Case approval (Approval Gate 1) under these guidelines and is currently undergoing detailed design works with a view to making a submission to the department for pre tender approval (Approval Gate 2) in 2025.

Further to the above, €5 million has also been allocated to Tipperary County Council under the URDF’s Third Round of Funding Support. Supporting key objectives of Housing for All, Town Centre First, and the Vacant Homes Action Plan, this round of URDF support has been specifically designed to address long term vacancy and dereliction across URDF eligible cities and towns.

This will be achieved through the provision of a €150m revolving fund for local authorities to acquire long term vacant (> 2 years) or derelict properties (residential and/or commercial) and to carry out any associated works needed to de-risk or improve the site to make it more attractive for re-use or sale. The fund would then be replenished from the proceeds received from the end use/user thereby, allowing the local authority to put in place a rolling programme of acquisitions in order to tackle long term vacancy and dereliction without recourse to borrowing and the associated financial risk.

77 properties have been identified as suitable for acquisition under this first stage of the programme across Tipperary’s three URDF-eligible towns - Clonmel, Thurles and Nenagh.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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266. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide details of all funding provided by his Department to Clonmel town since the abolition of the borough council ten years ago; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23570/24]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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267. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide details of all funding provided by his Department to Nenagh town since the abolition of town councils ten years ago; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23571/24]