Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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572. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the town and village renewal scheme, including streetscape enhancement measures, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37905/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS) was introduced in 2016 and is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of the scheme over €177 million has been allocated to almost 1,800 projects. The Scheme is primarily targeted at towns and villages with a population of 10,000 or less.

TVRS is administered through local authorities, who work closely with local communities and businesses to develop proposals that will bring long-lasting, positive impacts to rural towns and villages.

Earlier this year, in recognition of the need for additional supports required to achieve the goals set out in the Town Centre First Policy (TCF), I launched a new TCF Suite of Supports which is providing an additional €4 million across 3 measures to support broader efforts to regenerate town centres through a bottom-up approach. One such measure supports the completion of Project Development Measure (PDM) projects and on the 23 August 2024, I announced €2.6 million in funding to support 53 successful projects.

The allocations in the table below include the amounts awarded under TVRS and the TCF Suite of Supports PDM; successful projects under the 2024 PDM are available on my Departments website.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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573. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37906/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS) provides funding for the development and enhancement of outdoor recreational infrastructure such as walking trails, cycleways, water-based recreation sites and mountain trails.

Since 2020, funding of over €85.5 million has been allocated to 1,073 outdoor recreation projects nationwide.

A table detailing funding approved for each county under ORIS since 2020 is set out below. This information relates to the funding approvals per calendar year rather than each annual iteration of the scheme. For example, projects under measures 1, 2 and 3 of the ORIS 2023 scheme were formally announced at the start of 2024 and are included under the 2024 column below.

Details of all approved projects can be found on my Department's website.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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574. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under Leader, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37907/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The LEADER Programme is a key intervention of Our Rural Future, the Government’s Policy for rural development which aims to deliver a range of actions to rural communities over the lifetime of the policy. It supports a broad range of activities which aim to respond to the diversity of the local needs of our rural areas and is delivered at local level by Local Action Groups (LAGs).

From 2020 to date, projects to the value of over €145 million were approved for funding through the LEADER Programme. The table below gives a breakdown of the cumulative amount of funding approved under the 2014-2022 and 2023-2027 LEADER programmes by county during the referenced timeframe.

The LAGs are in the early stages of implementation of the 2023-2027 LEADER programme which involves engaging with their respective communities and working with them to develop their project proposals. Over the coming years I look forward to seeing the continued delivery of LEADER projects that support the development of our rural areas and communities.

Table 1: Funding Approved per county from 2020 to 23/09/2024

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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575. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the CLÁR, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37908/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department's CLÁR programme provides funding under a number of different measures for small-scale infrastructural projects in designated rural areas. Since 2020, over €39 million has been allocated under the CLÁR programme to almost 1000 projects

A table detailing funding approved for each county under CLÁR since 2020 is set out below. This information relates to the amount approved under each annual iteration of the scheme. There are no CLÁR areas in Dublin, Kildare or Wexford. Further announcements under CLÁR 2024 are expected in the coming weeks.

Details of all approved projects can be found on my Department's website.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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576. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the rural regeneration fund, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37909/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund is a strategic capital investment fund that is key to the delivery of Ireland's rural development policy, Our Rural Future 2021-2025.

The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland.

Calls for applications to the Fund are sought under two categories – Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 relates to large scale ambitious capital projects with all necessary planning and other consents in place and ready to proceed. Category 2 provides grant funding to enable the development of project proposals suitable for future calls for Category 1 applications.

Since 2020, RRDF funding of €422.8 million has been approved for 135 projects countrywide.

The table below sets out the funding allocated to each county from 2020 to date in 2024. No RRDF funding was allocated in the 2023 calendar year.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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577. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the local improvement scheme, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37910/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Local Improvement Scheme (LIS) supports improving rural roads and laneways that are not usually maintained by local authorities. As part of Our Rural Future, the government is committed to ensuring that LIS is funded in the future.

My Department reintroduced the scheme in 2017 after several years without dedicated funding. Between 2017 and 2024, almost €170 million has been allocated to local authorities under the scheme. Up to the end of 2023, this has upgraded over 4,000 non-public roads and lanes, benefitting nearly 20,000 landowners and residents in these rural areas.

Attached is a breakdown of the cumulative funding provided under the Local Improvement Scheme in each county from 2020 to date in 2024. To help local authorities better plan their work programmes, this year, I have directed additional funding to LIS and have allocated funding to local authorities for both 2024 and 2025.

The table below sets out the overall funding allocated on a county basis from 2020 - 2025.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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578. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the connected hubs scheme, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37911/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Our Rural Future recognises the opportunity that remote working presents for rural rejuvenation and commits to establishing a comprehensive and integrated national network of 400 remote working hubs by 2025. It provides an opportunity for people to continue to live in rural communities while following their career ambitions, supporting the retention of skilled people in rural communities and attracting mobile talent to rural areas. It can reduce commuting time, lowering transport emissions, provide a better work-life balance and an improved quality of life.

Substantial funding has been invested by my Department in the development of remote working facilities through a variety of programmes including funding for the conversion of many vacant and derelict buildings into remote working hubs.

In 2021, I launched connectedhubs.ie, a shared online booking and payments platform for remote working hubs and their users. There are currently 366 facilities across the country on-boarded to the platform. An interactive map that shows the location and details of each remote working hub in Ireland is available on connectedhubs.ie.

The Connected Hubs call in 2021 and 2022, awarded approximately €14 million to almost 200 projects enabling successful applicants to add additional capacity to existing remote working infrastructure in digital hubs and Broadband Connection Points (BCP) throughout the country (Table 1 attached).

I am committed to ensuring that the Connected Hubs Network will continue to make a central contribution to the achievement of the Government's vision for rural Ireland, as set out in Our Rural Future.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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579. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the social inclusion and community activation programme, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37912/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is Ireland’s primary social inclusion intervention with an allocation of €47.4 million in 2024. SICAP funding allocations are made based on levels of relative affluence and deprivation in communities, ensuring the programme is targeting disadvantage fairly, to help those individuals in greatest need of the support.

The programme is managed at a local level by 33 Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs), with support from local authorities, and actions are delivered by 47 Local Development Companies across 53 Lot areas.

In 2022, an additional €5 million funding was allocated through SICAP, to support the Local Development Companies in the community response to support people arriving from Ukraine. An additional €10 million was also provided under SICAP in 2023 and in excess of €11m has been allocated in 2024 to allow Local Development Companies to continue their work to support New Arrivals and International Protection Applicants.

As requested, please see attached a breakdown of county by county allocations for SICAP for 2020 to 2024 including New Arrivals funding from 2022.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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580. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the Community Services Programme, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37913/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Departments Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 430 community-based organisations, to provide local services through a social enterprise model, with an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager.

Following an independent review of the programme, the CSP was restructured with a needs-based, differentiated funding allocation model introduced for the CSP from January 2023, as an alternative to the previous flat rate payment model. This new model was designed to support those organisations most in need, providing a higher rate of funding to supported organisations that are identified as operating in areas of high disadvantage, employing individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and with evidence of limited earning potential.

In March 2023, funding of €1m was made available for a Call for Proposals in respect of specific CSP services which resulted in 14 new applicants being approved entry to the CSP on 13^th December last, supporting thirteen manager positions and twenty three full time equivalent positions, valued at circa €1m.

An application window for funding for additional staff posts to existing CSP funded organisations was opened on September 1st 2023 with a closing date of 29th September 2023. The successful applications were announced on 18th June, approving €1 million in funding to support a further seven manager positions and thirty five FTE positions in thirty two CSP supported organisations.

Following the announcement of an increase of €1.40 to the minimum wage as part of Budget 2024, on 13^th December last, I announced that the CSP contributions would increase for organisations at the higher level and at the medium level for both FTEs and for managers.

The County by County allocations below are reflective of funding provided including these measures.

County by County Allocations for Community Services Programme 2020 to date 2024.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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581. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the community centres investment fund; and the total number of community centres funded, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37914/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the 2022 Community Centre Investment Fund, over €45.8 million was committed for improvement and refurbishment works on 861 existing community centres across Ireland. In April, I approved funding of €30 million for the construction of 12 new community centres across nine counties.

In June this year, I was delighted to announce a new round of the Community Centre Investment Fund which will provide funding of between €10,000 and €100,000 towards capital costs for the refurbishment of existing community centres. The 2024 scheme closed for applications on Thursday 5th September.

Please find a table attached which lists the cumulative funding provided under the Community Centres Investment Fund and the total number of community centres funded in each county in 2022 and 2023. I expect to begin announcing the successful applicants under the 2024 scheme in the coming months.

Details of all approved projects can be found on my Department's website.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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582. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the community enhancement programme, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37915/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Community Enhancement Programme (CEP) was established in 2018 with the aim of providing funding for community groups in disadvantaged areas across Ireland. There have been a number of iterations of the CEP since then. In 2023, the CEP was replaced by the Local Enhancement Programme (LEP) which has a particular focus on small capital works/improvements, and the purchase of equipment for community use. Various community groups have benefited from the CEP and LEP with almost €59m in funding being approved for almost 27,000 projects countrywide.

The LEP is administered locally on behalf of my Department by Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) across the country, with support from their Local Authority. The relevant LCDC receive and appraise applications for funding under the LEP and make determinations on how the funding can best support their communities.

The LEP is now closed to applicants.

Please find attached table 1 below which provides a breakdown of the funding allocated to each County from 2020 - 2023. To date in 2024, no funding announcement has been made with regard to the LEP, and any announcement relating to the next iteration of the LEP will be considered within the context of available resources.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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583. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative funding provided under the community recognition fund, in each county from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37916/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Community Recognition Fund was first introduced in 2023 to recognise the huge efforts made by communities in welcoming and supporting people coming to Ireland. Through the 2023 allocation, funding of €50 million was approved for some 900 projects. I was delighted to announce a further €50 million in funding under the Community Recognition Fund on March 15th last. The attached table lists the funding allocated to each county under the Community Recognition Fund in 2023 and 2024.

Applications under the current round of funding can be submitted by local authorities across three phases, so as to allow flexibility and adequate engagement and collaboration at a local level. The closing date for receipt of applications under phase 1 was May 31st last, with the subsequent phases closing on September 30th, 2024 and January 31st, 2025.

Successful projects under phase 1 of the 2024 scheme were announced on 2nd August. I expect that the successful projects under phase 2 will be announced before the end of the year. Details of all approved projects can be found on my Department's website.