Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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86. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development to progress work on a strategy for suburban Dublin villages, including schemes that are similar to those available for rural Dublin villages. [26304/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Launched in 2022, ‘Town Centre First’ (TCF) is a major cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. In line with its remit, my Department has supported the development of Town Centre First Plans for Dublin towns in areas such as Rush and Lusk.

The Town Centre First policy supports the vision outlined in ‘Our Rural Future’ for a thriving rural Ireland. It does this by providing a framework and financial resources to facilitate and resource the regeneration of rural Irish towns to ensure they are resilient and vibrant places to live, work, invest in, and visit. To this end the Department’s Rural Development Investment Programme operates a range of capital schemes which are targeted at rural areas outside of our more urban metropolitan locations. These schemes include for example the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme.

It should be noted that the Town Centre First policy was developed in conjunction with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. As such, the policy can and does have application to communities across larger and more urban towns. To this end, dedicated funding schemes are available to local authorities via the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to support larger towns including for example the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund and the Thrive Scheme to revitalise our heritage buildings.