Vol. 532 No. 1
68 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the criteria used in the selection of the 25 most deprived areas for inclusion in the RAPID programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6619/01]
315 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the selection procedure employed to select areas to be included in the RAPID scheme recently announced by the Government; the total number of selected areas involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7346/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 315 together.
The revitalising of areas by planning, investment and development programme, otherwise known as the RAPID programme, will target support and investment to the 25 most deprived areas in the State. The designation of the 25 areas has been agreed by Government on the basis of clear and objective criteria, provided by the Trutz-Haase index, and on an independent analysis of the relative levels of deprivation, which used 11 broad variables drawn from the 1996 census of population and involved 75 separate items of data per district electoral division – DED. Factors such as unemployment, income levels, family and social structure, educational disadvantage and high levels of rented local authority housing were taken into account by the Index.
In order to ensure selection to the 25 most deprived areas, it was necessary to confine the list to those DEDs which fell within the category of "the most deprived 5% of DEDs in the State" as identified in the Trutz-Haase index. The designation process was supported by data relating to significant incidences of rented local authority housing – more than 75% – and by the presence of designated disadvantaged schools as identified by the Department of Education and Science.
