Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 March 2018
539. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the reason County Kildare has been excluded from the CLÁR programme to date; if he will review this and consider including County Kildare in the list of eligible counties for CLÁR; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11521/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe CLÁR (Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais) programme is an important part of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development and makes a huge contribution to supporting the most depopulated areas in rural Ireland. The programme provides funding for small scale infrastructural projects in disadvantaged rural areas that have experienced significant levels of de-population. Almost 900 projects have been approved for funding since I re-launched the CLÁR programme in the second half of 2016.
CLÁR was originally launched in October 2001 to provide for targeted investment in disadvantaged rural areas. The areas originally selected for inclusion in the programme were those which suffered the greatest population decline from 1926 to 1996, with the exception of the Cooley Peninsula which was included on the basis of the serious difficulties caused in that area by Foot and Mouth disease. The average population loss in the original CLÁR regions over the period 1926 to 1996 was 50%.
In 2006, an analysis of the 2002 Census data was carried out by the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) at Maynooth University and the programme was extended to include areas with an average population loss of 35% between 1926 and 2002. Kildare was not identified as a county that had suffered an average 35% decline in its population in that period and, as a result, no areas within that county were designated as CLÁR areas. The areas included in the 2016 and 2017 CLÁR programmes were based on the work carried out by NIRSA.
I intend to launch a new call for proposals under the CLÁR programme shortly, using the same designation criteria which applied in 2016 and 2017. I also intend to carry out a full review of CLÁR areas later this year on the basis of the 2016 Census of Population data. The level of depopulation will continue to be a primary factor in the designation of any area as a CLÁR area. The review will involve a detailed examination of all areas of the country, as well as stakeholder consultation. I plan to begin the review process in the coming months with the aim of having a full and comprehensive review completed before the end of the year.
The findings of the review will inform future launches of the scheme, post-2018.
