Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

435. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of applications to date for the town and village renewal scheme for 2025; the amount of funding allocated to the scheme for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14937/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Town and Village Renewal Scheme, which was introduced in 2016, has to date allocated over €177 million to almost 1,800 projects nationally. The scheme, which sees our local authorities work with community actors, primarily targets funding at rural towns and villages with populations of less than 10,000.

I was delighted to open the 2025 scheme for applications last week. The 2025 scheme is intended to support the revitalisation of rural Ireland by focusing on stimulating town centre economic and social regeneration. This will be achieved through projects which support sustainable employment creation, town centre resilience and regeneration, enhancement of our streetscapes, and the bringing of vacant and derelict buildings or lands back into use as community multi-purpose spaces.

Under the 2025 scheme, there are three main funding streams available for project applications.

Under the 'Main Scheme' local authorities can submit applications for one project up to a value of €500,000 and up to thee further projects with maximum values of €300,00. In addition, counties with offshore islands and/or Gaeltacht areas are permitted to submitted one additional application up to a maximum value of €300,000.

The second stream is the Project Development Measure, and this provides up to €50,000 to undertake the required planning and development work to underpin the development of successful projects.

Finally, the Building and Land Acquisition Measure is available again this year following on from the success of the support provided in this area in recent years. This funding stream makes up to €500,000 available to each eligible local authority to purchase vacant or derelict buildings and sites for later development as community facilities.

The closing date for the submission of applications under the Building and Land Acquisition Measure is May 2nd, 2025 and for the Main Scheme and Project Development Measure is July 25th, 2025.

All applications received in the Department will be assessed as part of a competitive process. Funding under the Scheme will be awarded following the assessment of applications for suitability against scheme criteria and objectives.

Full details of the 2025 scheme are available on my Department's website. I look forward to receiving high quality applications from across the country, and to announcing the successful applications later this year.