Eric J. Byrne
Question:176. Deputy Eric Byrne asked the Minister for Finance if he will clarify a situation regarding the Living City initiative (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17543/14]
View answerTuesday, 15 April 2014
Questions (176)
Written answers
The Deputy will be aware that the Living City Initiative was enacted in Finance Act 2013, in April 2013. I made it clear at that time that this was a pilot scheme that would be subject to an independent ex ante cost benefit analysis, consultation with the relevant local authorities and EU State Aid approval. When the scheme was being launched it was announced that the pilot would only focus on two cities Limerick and Waterford.
The ex ante cost benefit analysis was conducted in the summer of 2013, following a request for tender exercise. The final report was submitted to my Department in October 2013. Following the recommendations of the cost benefit analysis, I announced in my 2014 Budget Statement that I was extending the Living City Initiative to include designated areas of four other cities, namely, Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kilkenny. Following the publication of Finance Bill (No2) 2013 in December 2013, an ad-hoc committee of the relevant personnel from the 6 local authorities and representatives of other Government Departments and Agencies was convened in January 2014. The local authorities were asked to nominate areas within their cities for consideration to be included in the Initiative. When these responses were received, the application for EU State Aid approval was submitted by my Department. It is impossible to be certain how long this approval process might take, but in other cases it has been up to a year. The Initiative will also be subject to a commencement order and the legislation provides that the exact areas to be included will be decided upon by the Minister for Finance.