Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2024
47. Deputy Brian Leddin asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development to outline the analysis her Department is conducting on investments made under the town and village renewal scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10456/24]
View answer60. Deputy Brian Leddin asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development for an update on developing town teams in Limerick; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10455/24]
View answer67. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the supports made available by her Department to address vacancy and dereliction in rural towns and villages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10459/24]
View answerThe town and village renewal scheme under the Minister's Department is a fantastic scheme to invest in our rural towns and villages. I was delighted to see the Minister's announcement last month of a €4.5 million package for our rural towns and villages. Will the Minster outline any analysis her Department is conducting on those investments to ensure we are achieving what we set out to do with this, that is, to regenerate and bring life, living and better footfall back into our towns and villages and to create nicer places for the people who live there?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 47, 60 and 67 together.
The town and village renewal scheme is one of a number of measures designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. It is a key driver of the national rural development policy, Our Rural Future, and the town centre first policy. Since the launch of the scheme in 2016, more than €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland. As with the full range of schemes operated by my Department, there is an ongoing process in place to ensure that value for money is being delivered. For example, the scheme's priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year to ensure that funding is targeted effectively to support vibrant and attractive communities and to respond to changing needs and opportunities. In recent years, this process has seen the scheme focus more on town centre regeneration projects and the challenges of vacancy and dereliction. In addition, the town and village renewal scheme is also subject to standard procedures such as the focused policy assessment process and the Department's internal control procedures.
More widely, my officials continue to work with expert bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service on the analysis and evaluation of our schemes and policies. As I have already mentioned, the town and village renewal scheme is closely aligned with the Government's town centre first policy. This is a major cross-Government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It supports the Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland, which is integral to our national economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and development.
In 2021, I supported the completion of an initial phase of 26 town centre first plans, including a plan for Abbeyfeale in County Limerick and Skibbereen in County Cork. Last week, I announced a further 26 towns to complete plans. Rathkeale will be the second approved town in Limerick and Kanturk will be the second in Cork.
I have also funded new town regeneration officer posts across local authorities. These officers will be a key resource locally. They will liaise with local communities and town teams, drive the development and completion of town centre first plans and help towns to make the best use of the wide range of funding streams available to them. I recently met with town regeneration officers and town team members from across the country. It is clear that there is a huge commitment among local communities to supporting and developing their towns and villages. This local buy-in and commitment is central to ensuring we can successfully develop projects that deliver real impact locally in revitalising towns and addressing vacancy and dereliction.
Last month, I launched a new range of town centre first supports that will provide further funding of €4.5 million to rural communities across the country. A key part of this is funding for up to three towns in each county to develop town teams or establish teams in towns where they do not currently exist. This is particularly important in helping towns that have not been able to access the range of support schemes to date or have had trouble in putting in place structures such as a town team at local level. It is important to recognise that not all towns are the same or have the same needs and challenges. That is why I have been anxious to ensure the supports offered by my Department are flexible and responsive in their design.
I encourage community members in Limerick, Cork and across the country to engage with their town regeneration officer and local authority and get involved. Town teams will be a key driver in ensuring local rates of vacancy and dereliction are identified and addressed appropriately through the many supports available, including my Department's rural regeneration and development fund and town and village renewal scheme. The fifth call of the rural regeneration and development fund, with a focus on revitalising rural towns and villages and addressing vacancy and dereliction, closed on 8 February this year. I expect to be in a position to announce the successful projects before the end of quarter 2 of 2024. Similarly, I expect to announce successful projects under the town and village renewal scheme by the end of quarter 1 of 2024, which is the end of this month. Together, these two funding announcements will enable a further tranche of high-quality regenerative projects to be delivered in towns across rural Ireland. This is in addition to the significant funding I have already announced in previous tranches of these schemes and under new initiatives such as the building acquisition measure.
My Department remains absolutely committed to addressing the issues of vacancy and dereliction in our rural towns and to ensuring we deliver on the Government's vision for rural Ireland as set out in the Our Rural Future document. As I said, there are some towns with very active and successful town teams, while others have not quite reached that standard. The funding I announced will help some of those towns to build their capacity. We must get buy-in from local people. The town centre first officers will be able to help towns to set up a team and can guide them along the way. The grant towns can get is not a huge amount of money but it will help and encourage them. There is a very successful town team in my town of Monaghan but it is not replicated across the county.
The Minister's response is very positive and the figure of €156 million for 1,700 projects is impressive. I am glad she mentioned the requirement for buy-in from local communities. Going through that participative process is key to success. I am sure if she had time she would have mentioned Blessington in my constituency. It has a beautiful wide main street, a beautiful square and was a market town back in the day. We are working constructively on developing an inner relief road to take a lot of the heavy goods traffic that is currently using the N81.
Vacant homes officers, town regeneration officers and the town teams are working closely with public representatives. When we combine that with the funding under the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, there really is a very positive impact on our towns and villages. It highlights how the Government has really concentrated on bringing life and living into those towns and villages. Croí Cónaithe is another important scheme that helps to bring empty or vacant buildings back into residential use. Having residential footfall, with people living and walking around a town, is good for local business. It is good to have that life brought back into towns. It is also a form of climate action to try to consolidate towns and prevent continual sprawl.
I was very impressed by some of the measures in the our rural future policy, which was issued approximately two years ago, and the town centre first policy. It can be a little confusing for people that there are so many funding streams. We need to ensure people know about all these different streams. Alongside large-scale infrastructural development funding, the smaller measures make a huge difference to the residents of towns and villages.
The work the Minister is doing in this area is extraordinary and really important. In the town of Youghal in my constituency, which she knows well, I am told there are 102 vacant properties on the main street. I am not aware of any town team being established there. We probably need to accelerate the great work the Minister is doing to bring more towns up to speed. I agree with my colleague, Deputy Matthews, on the importance of having people living in properties that were retail properties in the past but are no longer being used for that purpose. That is needed to bring life back into the streets of towns. It would be absolutely fantastic to see that happening. Youghal is a beautiful town by the sea with everything going for it, including a great history and heritage. Yet, because of its geographical location, the traffic in Castlemartyr and so on, it is dying in front of us. Can the Minister give us any hope as to what can be done for Youghal in the near future?
I thank the Deputies for the issues they raised. Under the second measure in the town centre first suite of supports, Newtownmountkennedy is the designated town in County Wicklow and Kanturk is the town in County Cork. It is very much about supporting these towns. The town centre first officer who will be appointed for each county can work with towns that need that support.
Youghal is a town I hear plenty about, especially from Deputy Stanton and some of his colleagues. In 2021, it was allocated €4.048 million under the RRDF for the delivery of a modern and fully resourced library for the town. It is a wonderful and important project. Mitchelstown was given €270,000 under category 2 of the RRDF to develop plans to repurpose a vacant landmark building to facilitate the overall branding and place making of a Georgian heritage cultural quarter. I visited the town with the Deputy the year before last.
There is a lot of investment being made under a number of different streams, all of which are tailored to meet specific needs. The purpose of the town centre first officers will be to co-ordinate and liaise with the local town team or the local community and come forward with applications. All the applications that come to my Department must go through the local authority. People need to engage with the local authority to make sure what they see as the right approach for their town comes through to my Department to be funded. There is €30,000 for Kanturk and Newtownmountkennedy to develop plans. It is important that towns have a plan. If everybody signs up to the plan, we know where we are going. If there is no plan, the process is all over the place, as we know. There are a lot of these plans in existence. Towns can look at what similar towns have done to see how they can develop a plan and build capacity within a town team.
I am delighted the Minister mentioned Newtownmountkennedy, which is the home town of my father-in-law, Noel Doyle.
He is a very proud resident, as are all the other residents. There is a scheme to rejuvenate the main street, which is another example of a wide street. The town has seen considerable population growth, which is a good thing. Many houses have been built throughout north Wicklow and in places like Newtownmountkennedy and Greystones. Blessington is also undergoing considerable development. Therefore, it is so important at this time that we continue to fund the schemes, involve the communities and give support. I strongly believe we have given support to the local authorities in appointing town regeneration officers. There are vacancy offices and large active travel teams in all our local authorities. In resourcing the local authorities, we arm them to put their best foot forward to run the schemes. Overall, everyone in this Chamber wants to see life returned to rural towns and villages, which are the heartbeat of our country. It is often levelled at us that we concentrate on the five cities, which are important, but the towns, villages and the hinterlands of the cities are also very important.
I agree with Deputy Stanton. I was in Youghal last year. It is an absolutely fantastic town and one can see its beautiful Victorian character. This town will also benefit. Long may this continue. The Minister should keep up the good work. I really like the Our Rural Future policy document. I could not have written it better myself. I thank the Minister for that and I ask her to continue with the investment.
I welcome the Minister's choosing of Kanturk but we have had this debate before. Cork is about three times the size of other counties but it had just one town included. Every other county had one town included also. In future, the Minister might regard Cork as having three divisions, which it has, and include three towns rather than one, thereby ensuring funding equality based on geographical size. County Louth has one town and Cork has one. That is not really fair in many ways. Maybe the Minister will consider this.
Does the Minister agree that the best way to have town and village renewal is to deal with vacancy and dereliction and get people living along the streets, as my colleague said already? Every second premises in a town like Youghal is now empty and boarded up, which is extraordinarily depressing. What can the Government do urgently to encourage owners of such premises to have people living along the street again? It is really serious. Every shop that closes leads to another closure, and then another and another.
I welcome the Government's Town Centre First plan. As the Minister knows, Tullow, County Carlow, now has a town regeneration officer who will manage the implementation of the plan locally and work with the town team but to me the really good thing is that work is being done with the community representatives. That is the game-changer and I really welcome it.
It was announced that Bagenalstown has been identified as one of the 26 towns across Ireland that will be in phase 2 of the Town Centre First plan. Rural Ireland will be crucial in this regard. Tullow and Bagenalstown, both in County Carlow, are part of the plan. What will happen? What is the timescale?
Could I have an update on the Carlow library? I heard the Minister speaking about libraries earlier. As she knows, a major application has been submitted for Carlow library.
The towns recently announced - Bagenalstown, County Carlow, was mentioned - will all get funding of €30,000 to work on their plans, and they can also get money to support their town teams and build capacity within communities. You have to encourage people to become engaged, speak up, make their views known and get the applications in.
My focus is on utilising the buildings that are not really suitable for housing but that can be converted for community use. Under the buildings acquisition measure, which is a new measure I introduced, we gave funding to the local authorities to purchase buildings that they identify, with local groups, as buildings that could be converted for community use. In some cases, as we know, these buildings are former bank buildings. Many of these were converted into remote working hubs or enterprise spaces. In other cases, the relevant building might be an old primary school or Garda station, and this could become home to the local men's shed or another community group. This is where my focus is.
Other things are happening. In this regard, reference was made to houses. Up to €70,000 is available through the vacant homes refurbishment grant. There is considerable demand for this. It is the responsibility of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. When driving around, I see houses being renovated that were vacant, falling down or not finished. People will be moving into them. This breathes new life into areas and it is wonderful to see. The Department of housing also has vacant homes officers in the local authorities and they are leading on other schemes, such as the repair-and-lease scheme and, of course, the buy-and-renew scheme. Some local authorities have used these schemes to great effect. The local authorities, particularly that in Waterford, have really shown what can be achieved through the schemes. Some local authorities are very good at doing some things while others need a bit more support and may need a little more encouragement. They can be given the example of Waterford.
The Department of housing is also doing a lot of work in the larger towns and cities through the urban regeneration fund and it is considering how we can combat vacancy and dereliction. There are several good examples around the country in this regard. I was in Patrickswell, County Limerick, only last Wednesday and I opened a beautiful new community centre there. It was formerly a vacant site in the heart of the village. The people knew what they wanted and were able to work with the local authority to get the application in, and we were able to fund it.
