Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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841. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the progress made from the first batch of town centre first projects; the value of projects agreed; and the learnings from this round as to how this policy can now be scaled up; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29510/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Launched in 2022, the Town Centre First (TCF) Policy is a major cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It supports the Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland. My Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage jointly manage the policy.

Amongst the initiatives supported by my Department under TCF is the development of TCF Plans that are helping rural communities develop a vision for their local areas and identify viable projects to realise this vision. The initial pilot programme, which I launched in 2021, consisted of 26 town plans and are now all completed and can be viewed on the towncentrefirst.ie website.

Last February, I launched a new suite of supports which is providing an additional €4.5 million to support broader efforts to regenerate town centres through a bottom-up approach. This measure supports the development of a further 26 town plans, the establishment and development and establishment of Town Teams and the completion of Project Development Measure (PDM) projects.

I have announced the successful towns that are being supported to complete a town plan and develop and establish town teams, which includes 94 towns with a funding allocation of €1.46 million. These towns can be viewed on my Department’s website. All PDM applications have been received by my Department and are currently undergoing the competitive assessment process. I expect to announce successful projects shortly.

The National TCF Office is key to the success of the policy. This Office is currently reviewing the completed pilot town plans and preparing a best-practice manual which will aid the development of the new plans. I want to emphasise that TCF is a policy approach relevant to towns of all sizes and local authorities are being supported to roll-out the approach more broadly. My Department is also funding Town Regeneration Officers (TROs) in local authorities to work as a central driver of Town Centre First on a local level. TROs work in collaboration with other local authority officers, including the vacant homes officers. My Department collaborates closely with the National TCF Office as well as TROs, local authority officials and Town Teams.

My Department also administers a range of funding schemes, many of which are linked to TCF such as the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. This strategic link between policy, communities and schemes is key to successful outcomes. The priorities of these schemes are reviewed on an ongoing basis and prior to the launch of all funding calls to ensure that they align with the goals of our policies, including TCF and Our Rural Future.

A full review of the TCF policy will be completed in 2025 and discussions are underway on the specifics of this review. Decisions on the future direction of TCF will be informed by this review. In the meantime, my Department remains fully committed to the success of the Town Centre First policy to deliver on the goal of revitalising rural towns and villages.