John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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721. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the position regarding applications from Cork County Council for Rural Regeneration and Development Fund support for towns and villages in Cork north-west and if he will ensure that shovel ready projects in these areas receive priority consideration in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [67278/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) is a major programme, which seeks to support large-scale, ambitious projects that can achieve sustainable economic and social development in rural areas. The focus of the RRDF is on rural towns and villages with a population of less than 10,000 people. To date, the RRDF has allocated over €613 million for 273 projects across Ireland.

Calls for Proposals to the RRDF are sought under two categories. Category 1 relates to large scale capital works projects with all necessary planning and consents in place and are ready to proceed. Category 2, which typically provides funding of up to €1m per project, relates to projects which may planning permissions and statutory consents and further development to become ready for Category 1 status. Each Call for Proposals details the objective of the Call and the eligibility criteria applying to project applications. This information, together with the scoring system upon which a competitive assessment process will be undertaken, is made available to potential applications at the outset of each call.

RRDF project proposals are developed, and successful projects delivered, by eligible ‘Lead Bodies’ including our local authorities, local development companies and other State agencies. This includes those operating in the Cork region and’ to date, 27 projects in Cork have been allocated over €43 million from the RRDF fund. Of these, 12 projects are situated in Cork North-West, having being allocated over €24 million in RRDF funding. Details of all RRDF projects can be found on my Departments website.

Following the assessment process undertaken as part of a Category 2 Call for Proposals, I was delighted to recently announce the allocation of €20.5 million in funding for 30 landmark regeneration projects in rural communities across the country, including four projects in County Cork.

It is my intention to launch a Call for Proposals for larger scale Category 1 RRDF projects in the near future and I can confirm it will be open to Lead Bodies to submit applications in respect of proposed projects in the Cork North West region.

I am committed to ensuring that the RRDF can continue to support high quality and transformational projects across rural Ireland in line with the objectives of Our Rural Future and the Town Centre First policy.