Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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120. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of applications received per year in 2023 and 2024, per county, for funding under the Community Recognition Fund; the number therein that were successful and the number that were unsuccessful in each county; the allocation that will be provided to each county in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38305/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Community Recognition Fund (CRF) was first introduced in 2023 to recognise the huge efforts made by communities in welcoming and supporting people coming to Ireland. Under the fund a total of €100 million has been provided to local authorities to support cities, towns and villages nationwide.

Under the initial €50 million allocation in 2023, some 906 projects were approved. All projects submitted to my Department by local authorities were successful in receiving funding

Under the CRF 2024, projects were approved over three phases across 2024 and 2025. In total 560 projects have been approved under the 2024 scheme, while 15 applications submitted by local authorities to my Department for approval were not allocated funding. It should be noted that each local authority has a set financial allocation and has the opportunity to replace unsuccessful applications with alternative projects in order to utilise their full allocation.

No decision has been made to implement a further iteration of funding at this stage and my immediate priority is to ensure the full delivery of all approved projects to date.

The attached table sets out the number of applications that were successful and unsuccessful under both iterations of the fund in each county.