merrion street

Michael Ring T.D., Minister of State for Regional Economic Development at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs today (13^th June 2017) announced details of just under €5 million in funding for Safety Measures and Play Areas under the CLÁR Programme as part of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development. 

Speaking today, Minister Ring said:

“I am delighted to be in a position to announce €5 million in funding to support schools and communities throughout rural Ireland to improve public safety around their facilities, as well as funding to develop or improve play areas in rural communities.

A diverse ranges of projects will benefit from this funding and will see improvements being made in small towns and villages in and around their schools and community facilities. It is also important that we provide children in isolated rural areas with places where they can play safely and enjoy their childhood.”   

The Minister added:

“The initiatives under these measures have come from the communities themselves in cooperation with their local authorities and are a great example of the work that can be done when communities and local authorities work together. Many of the schools and communities have been working and fundraising for a long time to support these projects and I am delighted to be able to provide CLÁR funding in order to facilitate the completion of these very worthwhile works. The finished projects will support parents, teachers and their communities to ensure that they have safe and secure environments for their children to learn and play.”

The CLÁR programme is funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and forms part of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development.

The funding announced for these CLÁR projects follows on recent announcements of funding totalling almost €2 million under separate measures of the CLÁR programme which support targeted community infrastructure and voluntary emergency first responders.

Notes for Editors

Background

The CLÁR programme (Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais) is a targeted capital investment programme for rural areas which have experienced significant levels of depopulation.  The programme was originally launched in October 2001 but was closed for applications in 2010. The scheme was re-opened by Minister Ring in 2016 to support the development of remote rural areas through small-scale capital projects involving collaboration between Local Authorities and communities.

Areas targeted under the CLÁR Programme are parts of counties: Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wicklow and all of County Leitrim. A map of CLÁR areas is provided below.

2017 Measures

The 2017 CLÁR programme will provide funding under four Measures:

Measure 1:      Support for Schools/Community Safety Measures

Measure 2:       Play Areas

Measure 3:      Targeted Community Infrastructure Needs

Measure 4:      First Response Support Measure

The programme is funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs under the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development.

Funding totalling almost €2 million was previously announced for Measures 3 and 4.  The €5 million funding being announced today covers Measures 1 and 2 (Support for Schools/Community Safety Measures, and Play Areas).  Details of the allocations by county are provided on the table below.