English encourages local communities in Trim and Navan to work closely with Meath County Council on applications for Urban Regeneration and Development Fund
Some €4 billion will be made available to cities and towns across Ireland through the Project Ireland 2040 Funds, including the towns of Trim and Navan in Meath West, local Fine Gael T.D. and Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal Damien English T.D. has said.
As part of Project Ireland 2040, the Government is setting up four new funds to deliver better cities, better rural towns and communities, fund new technology and look at how we can combat climate change and effectively respond to the huge challenge it poses.
The breakdown is: €2bn for urban regeneration, €1bn for the Rural Development Fund, €500m climate action fund and €500m disruptive technologies fund
Minister English said: “This funding is great news for Trim and Navan, and for the wider county too. The new €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund will also encourage greater stakeholder contributions than we’ve had in the past.
“This is part of a longer term plan which delivers the resources to make our new planning framework come alive. Our hope is that this new funding model will move beyond politics and hopefully see more community driven initiatives.
“This fund will act as a driver of development and it is essential that Meath County Council and our community groups apply for all the funding available to them.
“The Fund will encourage collaborative approaches between Departments, agencies, Local Authorities and other public bodies, and the private sector, where appropriate, to pool their assets and work with communities to transform our rural towns and villages and their outlying areas.
“Previously we’ve allocated to Government Departments and to Local Authorities on the basis of what they got in the past – that needs to change.
“Proposals will be expected to be consistent with the National Planning Framework objectives and provide a strategic integrated approach which is consistent with regional and local plans for the area.
“To ensure Ireland benefits we have to completely change how we allocate funding to universities and the private sector on a competitive basis.
“We’re asking them to apply for funding that the State will look at matching,” the Meath West Fine Gael T.D. and Minister said.
ENDS
EDITORS NOTE:
€2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund:
The primary purpose of the €2 billion Fund is to secure more compact, sustainable growth in Ireland’s five cities and other large urban centres (the 59 eligible cities and towns are listed in the annex). This funding, addition to normal sectoral funding streams, is designed to leverage a greater proportion of residential and commercial development, supported by infrastructure, services and amenities, within the existing built-up areas of our larger urban settlements.
There is a total of €500m Exchequer funding to the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund over the years 2019 to 2022, with €100 million of expenditure available in 2019. An initial call for proposals is intended to be made before the end of June 2018, allowing a 14 week period for development of applications with a targeted closing date at end September 2018. Proposals will be invited to be submitted under one of two categories:
- A) ‘Ready-to-go’ proposals that can be initiated in 2019. Projects in this category will have the necessary consents (e.g. planning) in place, be at an advanced stage of design and be procurement-ready; or
- B) Proposals that require further development and that subject to approval in principle, may be initiated in 2019 or in subsequent years. It will be necessary to detail, as part of the bid process, the key steps required for further project development to enable project initiation.
The initial 2018 call will invite bids that may be made for funding a large project on a multi-annual basis, in respect of which project expenditure can commence in 2019. There will be further calls periodically, with funding/allocations to be increased incrementally as the programme becomes established.
Bid proposals must be on a co-funded basis and must therefore demonstrate significant stakeholder contribution in the form of a combination of wider exchequer and/or state-sector capital expenditure, local authority investment and/or land, or other asset contributions. The co-funding contribution must comprise not less than 25% of the bid value.
There will also be a requirement for 100% (euro-for-euro) leveraging of committed wider private sector investment in the delivery of homes, community and/or commercial floorspace in urban areas, arising from investment to be made as a result of the Urban Fund.
There is a wide range of projects that will be eligible for this regeneration and development funding, including the acquisition, enabling and/or development of areas, sites and buildings, relocation of uses, public amenity works, community facilities, transport, services infrastructure and/or transition to a low carbon and climate resilient society, in an urban context.
Types of areas eligible for funding may include those that include a concentration of low-intensity uses, such as storage depots or warehousing, underutilised ‘backlands’ behind streets and buildings, or institutional sites that are suitable for re-development, as part of an overall regeneration proposal.
Eligible Cities and Towns:
A list of the eligible cities and towns is included below. This may be reviewed post-2021 following the next Census.
Cities
1 Dublin City and Metropolitan Area
2 Cork City and Metropolitan Area
3 Limerick City and Metropolitan Area
4 Galway City and Metropolitan Area
5 Waterford City and Metropolitan Area
Regional/Cross-border drivers
1 Drogheda
2 Dundalk
3 Athlone
4 Letterkenny
5 Sligo
Towns >10,000 population 2016
1 Swords
2 Bray
3 Navan
4 Kilkenny
5 Ennis
6 Carlow
7 Tralee
8 Newbridge
9 Portlaoise
10 Balbriggan
11 Naas
12 Mullingar
13 Celbridge
14 Wexford
15 Greystones
16 Clonmel
17 Malahide
18 Carrigaline
19 Leixlip
20 Tullamore
21 Maynooth
22 Killarney
23 Arklow
24 Cobh
25 Ashbourne
26 Midleton
27 Mallow
28 Castlebar
29 Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington
30 Enniscorthy
31 Cavan
32 Wicklow
33 Tramore
34 Ballina
35 Skerries
36 Longford
Towns <10,000 population, >2,500 jobs 2016
(eligible for either urban or rural funds)
1 Gorey
2 Shannon
3 Nenagh
4 Westport
5 Roscommon
6 Monaghan
7 Tuam
8 Thurles
9 Dungarvan
10 New Ross
11 Ballinasloe
12 Carrick-on-Shannon
13 Trim
DAMIEN ENGLISH T.D. 