Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 May 1999

Vol. 505 No. 3

Written Answers. - EU Urban Initiative.

Pat Rabbitte

Question:

247 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the amount allocated in grants and the actual amounts drawn down to date in respect of each of the three urban areas of Cork northside, Tallaght-Clondalkin and Ballymun-Finglas. [13698/99]

Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation (Mr. Flood)

I am assuming that the Deputy is referring to the three areas under the EU urban initiative and, on that basis, the following table sets out the most up to date information under this initiative as sought by the Deputy:–

Breakdown, by Sub-Programme, or URBAN Community Initiative allocations and drawdown in (IR£m.)

SubProgramme	Area	Total allocation	Funding drawndown to date	Balance
1	North DublinBallymun/Darndale/Finglas	10.4	7.2	3.2
2	South DublinWest Tallaght/North Clondalkin	5.4	2.4	3.0
3	Northside of Cork City	5.4	4.3	1.1
	Total	21.2	13.9	7.3

At the meeting on 5 May 1999 the monitoring committee for the URBAN Operational Programme, each of the steering groups in the three selected areas confirmed that all funding available to them had been fully allocated. In addition, significant progress was reported in respect of activity in the first four months of 1999. Planning permission is now in place for the flagship project in Ballymun – the Arts and Community Resource Centre, allocated IR£2.13 million from URBAN – the planning process for the Darndale's Village Centre – IR£1.14 million from URBAN – is under way and the Enterprise Centre in Cork is near completion.

The monitoring committee was also pleased to note the assurances from the steering groups and full financial allocations would be spent within the programming period which expires at the end of 2001.