The Government has announced today that a new €30m scheme will be introduced to improve rural areas hit by the economic downturn.
The Village and Town Renewal Scheme, was announced this morning at the National Ploughing Championships.
The scheme will channel the €30m through local authorities to revitalise towns and villages across the country by spending money on improving public amenities, renovating of derelict buildings, introducing environmental initiatives that help support economic activity, and other projects.
Rural towns and villages have felt the impact of the economic downturn more acutely than bigger cities and the scheme has been set up to make them better places to live and work for residents.
Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Rural Economic Development Ann Phelan has said the Local Community and Development Committees have been put in place in order to divide the €30m.
She suggested that the focus of the funding will be towards towns that need environmental upgrading and development in public utilities such as street lighting and stated that the investment will introduce many changes over the next five years.
“The communities themselves will actually decide themselves what they want, and they will be able to put forward an expression of interest of what they want to do.
“When we identify that they will then be able to get their plan in order, and in some ways this is about trying to harness the potential that we know exists out their in rural communities across Ireland.”