Rural Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I disagree with the Deputy. This is another social media statement without any basis. He mentioned Fermoy. We are currently investing €2.2 million in Fermoy to renew the town centre and the Blackwater experience and are working with the local community and development companies. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are involved. The Deputy has to see for himself, or else does not want to see, the level of progress in many rural areas. In Athy, the Shackleton experience is led by the local community, in partnership with Kildare County Council. Old buildings have been renewed and repurposed. I could provide any number of examples under RRDF and the town and village renewal scheme.
We need to examine how can we can expand the town and village renewal scheme. Deputy Currie is in the Chamber. We need to consider how communities and villages in Dublin can be tackled.. The Deputy suggested that there be CPOs, as if that could happen very easily. Many councils are trying to do that. The Deputy understands more than most the property rights in our Constitution, ownership rights and the difficulty of getting access to CPOs. Many councils are doing that through the town regeneration officer. The person is doing the legwork on that necessary work and research. That town regeneration officer is funded by my Department. We cannot just wave a magic wand. Town regeneration officers are doing very hard work on the ground. It is unseen, but is making a difference in towns and villages around the country if one chooses to see it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21