Urban Renewal Schemes

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Questions (315)

Dessie Ellis

Question:

331 Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to publish his regeneration plan and the information it will contain. [33463/12]

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Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Deputy Jan O’Sullivan)

My Department currently supports an ambitious programme of regeneration projects to deliver integrated physical, social and economic regeneration, ranging from large-scale urban regeneration projects such as those in Ballymun and Limerick city to smaller estate-wide regeneration projects in Dublin city and in a number of regional towns around the country.

This year my Department is providing some €90 million to support the national regeneration programme. Regeneration goes beyond a bricks and mortar solution in improving the accommodation and lifestyles of residents of run down local authority estates and flat complexes. Regeneration seeks to address the underlying causes of disadvantage and social exclusion and to create vibrant and sustainable communities. The projects supported by my Department take a broad focus, beyond the remediation of the physical environment, also to deliver social and economic regeneration of the areas concerned.

To qualify for regeneration funding, local authorities and regeneration agencies are required to prepare comprehensive evidence-based masterplans, which provide a vision for the physical, social and economic regeneration of the area concerned and set out a framework for delivering on the objectives of the plan. The plan should include detailed strategies and implementation arrangements for delivering all three strands of regeneration and for addressing the socio-economic and infrastructural deficits that contribute to the social exclusion of the community concerned. Beyond this, regeneration masterplans are project-specific and it is a matter for the local authority, in consultation with tenants, the local community and relevant statutory bodies, to determine the nature and extent of individual regeneration projects.