Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 June 2020
695. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the position in relation to the Sienna Valley urban regeneration development fund project submitted to appeal by Louth County Council; if a decision has been made; if not, when a decision will be made on this application for Drogheda, County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9939/20]
View answerIn July 2018 bids for URDF funding support were invited from public bodies, and as a result a total of 189 applications were received by my Department.
The application process was competitive and in the event, the call was oversubscribed in terms of potential value of proposals compared to the available annual URDF provisions. In this context all proposals went through a rigorous assessment including consideration by a Project Advisory Board (PAB), which consisted of representatives from my Department, other relevant Government Departments, agency representation and independent national and international expert representatives.
Following this process, on 26 November 2018, I announced initial URDF support of €100m for a total of 88 projects throughout the country.
All applicants both successful and unsuccessful received a detailed breakdown of the assessment of their proposal. Where the decision in respect of a proposal was unfavourable, applicants were offered the opportunity to request a review of the Departments decision.
As a result, requests for a review were submitted in respect of seven proposals. Each of the proposals involved was reviewed, having regard to the PAB's original evaluation and scoring of the proposal against the URDF programme criteria.
In all cases, including the case of the Northern Cross Route, Drogheda it was found there was nothing to support an outcome that would be materially different from that arrived at through the PAB process.
Louth County Council recently submitted an application for funding support for this project under Call 2 of the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund. The final date for the submission of applications under Call 2 was Friday, the 29th May. The application in question will be considered in due course as part of a rigorous assessment process including consideration by a Project Advisory Board .
