Vol. 550 No. 2
37 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the progress made to date regarding the implementation of the RAPID programme; the number of areas in respect of which plans have been submitted to his Department; the total projected budgets for these plans; when work on the implementation of the plans is likely to get under way; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8034/02]
As the Deputy is aware, the RAPID programme is a focused initiative by the Government to target the 25 most concentrated areas of disadvantage in the country. Priority attention is given under the programme to tackling the spatial concentration of poverty and social exclusion within the designated areas through front-loading State resources, available under the national development plan.
The area implementation plans for 13 of the 25 RAPID areas have been approved by the relevant city-county development boards and have been forwarded to the relevant Departments for consideration by the national co-ordinator for the programme at ADM Limited. As the plans were prepared by local area implementation teams for the individual areas, the range of measures and initiatives vary from area to area as will the level of national development plan funding which these proposals will lever.
At present, officials in each Department are initiating contacts with local agency personnel to discuss how best to progress the proposals. The area plans for the remaining 12 areas – eight in the Dublin City Council area and four in the South Dublin County Council area – are expected shortly.
It should be noted that the Department of the Environment and Local Government is responsible for strand two of the RAPID programme which caters for provincial towns, while the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is the lead Department for the CLÁR programme which is targeting rural areas.
A national monitoring committee has been established to monitor the implementation of both strands of the RAPID programme and the committee recently held its first meeting.
Question No. 38 answered orally.
