Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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108. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development for an update on the commitment to resource the Town Centre First model and establish a town regeneration team in every local authority, as outlined in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26305/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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. TCF supports the Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland by setting out a framework to facilitate and resource the regeneration of Irish towns to ensure they are vibrant, viable places to live, work, invest in, and visit.

Significant progress has been made since the launch of the policy towards achieving its objectives. Important developments to date include the establishment of a dedicated National TCF Office within the Local Government Management Agency which drives the actions under the policy, the establishment of Town Teams nationally and the appointment of 26 Town Regeneration Officers (TRO), based in local authorities across the country, who work as central drivers of TCF at a local level.

TROs act as a key link between the local authority, towns and villages and their communities. They support the establishment and ongoing development work of Town Teams, providing technical, communications, administrative and project management support and helping towns to access available funding streams. TROs also form part of a national TCF network that supports knowledge development and sharing best practice at a national level.

More broadly, TROs also currently work closely across multi-disciplinary technical teams in local authorities, including for example Capital Delivery Teams also funded by my Department, Vacant Homes Officers, Broadband Officers, Night Time Economy Officers, and build linkages with Town Teams and other stakeholders.

The new Programme for Government commits to the continuing resourcing of the Town Centre First model and to establish a Town Regeneration Team in every local authority. My Department will continue to work closely with colleagues in the National TCF Office, local authorities and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure the ongoing implementation of the policy and to deliver on the goal of revitalising rural towns and villages.

Importantly, the TCF approach is also underpinned by a range of capital funding streams across Government which have been aligned with the policy aims of TCF. These include the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, the Town and Village Renewal Scheme (which is now open for applications), the THRIVE scheme to revitalise our heritage buildings and the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.

The experience of recent calls for applications under these funds has shown that the TCF approach is having an impact, and this has resulted in high quality applications based on clear local input being submitted.