Towns to compete for share of €4bn pie

TOWNS are in line to pocket a tidy sum under new plans to have them compete for a share of €4billion-worth of funds under Project Ireland (PI) 2040.

Yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar launched four new funds available under the infrastructure programme directed at rural development, urban regeneration, climate action and innovation.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said yesterday that decisions on funds will be based on ‘the quality of the idea’, and it will be open to all the major towns and cities to apply. The breakdown of funding is:

€2billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund: will secure more sustainable growth in cities and large urban centres.

€1billion Rural Development Fund: will support job creation, address depopulation, and support improvements in towns, villages and their hinterlands.

€500 million Climate Action Fund: will support initiatives that contribute to the achievement of climate and energy targets.

€500 million Disruptive Technologies Fund: will see investment targeted at tackling national and global challenges.

Mr Donohoe said the plan hopes to move ‘away from providing funding resources to individual organisations’ and instead ‘support collaborative bids for funding important projects on a competitive basis’.

But Fianna Fail’s business and enterprise spokesman Billy Kelleher said it will give ministers ‘more power and influence’.