2026-05-21

97. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 518 of 26 March 2026, if he will outline when the new programme will launch to succeed the RAPID programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38009/26]

I ask the Minister to outline to the House his plans to roll out a successor to the revitalising areas by planning, investment and development, RAPID, programme. The Minister will know that was a previous programme that was closed in 2011. It brought together funding from different Departments to invest in some of our most disadvantaged communities to try to improve design and invest in those communities' infrastructure.

I thank the Deputy for his ongoing interest in this issue. As he knows, the current programme for Government commits to the establishment of a new communities initiative, similar in style to the previous RAPID programme, whereby all State agencies work together to implement community development and town centre rejuvenation. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I prioritised the development of this programme in 2026. We are in a position to announce €5 million in capital funding. We are currently finalising the details of what that scheme may look like, and hope to be able to launch it ahead of the summer. Considerations that are informing our work in the development of the programme include the changed demographic and socioeconomic landscape in Ireland. According to the revised Pobal HP deprivation index, post-census 2022, the gap between Ireland's most disadvantaged areas and the national average has increased. Furthermore, the number of people living in areas classed as very or extremely disadvantaged has also increased. The purpose of this new initiative is to focus on these areas to provide support for the development of much-needed infrastructure identified by the communities themselves. We need to ensure that the scheme is robust, evidence-based and fit for purpose, and directly targets the areas most in need of support. We have conducted extensive research in the development of the new scheme. We have had discussions with experts from the ESRI, the Central Statistics Office and Pobal to inform the evidence base. The County and City Management Association, CCMA, the Local Development Companies Network and other Government Departments have also been consulted. The level of information we now have about disadvantage in Ireland has increased enormously since the original RAPID programme was launched. Building on that evidence, the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are determined that the new programme will become a solid foundation for ongoing targeted investment in our urban areas of greatest need. We have also been clear that a €5 million budget is not going to change things overnight. We want to ensure that this programme is back in place, grows in the years to come and is seen to make a difference on the ground in our most disadvantaged urban communities.

I welcome the efforts of the Minister and the Minister of State. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, has responsibility for SICAP, which does fantastic work in disadvantaged areas. However, funding for infrastructure is also incredibly important. Often, by changing the physical landscape of an environment, you can bring real change to those communities. We should be working in partnership with, for example, the local community safety partnerships, the SICAP partners, the local community development committees, LCDCs, and the providers of the range of other grants that are coming into the communities for which people can apply. There needs to be a degree of co-ordination. I also welcome the fact that there will be an evidence base for this. That will ensure the communities that are really in need get these supports. It will mean we will be advocating for other communities that are on the edge to also be included. I say with some certainty that some of the communities in my constituency that are in that category will be on that list. Both the Minister and the Minister of State are welcome to my constituency to launch the scheme when it is done. That is an open invitation. I say that in the expectation that there may be communities nearby or elsewhere that will not be included. We have to go further than €5 million. We must go to €10 million and €15 million over successive budgets. I wish the Minister and the Minister of State the best of luck. They are both great champions of this project.

I thank the Deputy for the invitation. We will bear it in mind. There will be relevant areas in the Deputy's constituency, which is not something we should be proud about. There has not been an urban disadvantage programme that includes capital investment. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, is doing huge work with SICAP but this programme needs to make a difference and we need to ensure it is not wasted and the money goes directly to projects and communities. What I do not want is for it to go into administration or stuff that will not deliver to the communities we want to target it at. Second, it will be evidence based and massive work. I thank the officials in the Department, who are putting in massive work to try to ensure we have a solid evidence base. Third, as soon as we get a launch, we will engage in terms of budget negotiations for 2027 and 2028 and to the end of the lifetime of this Government to ensure we can begin to build this up. Whereas €5 million is a small investment, I think it is one that will make a difference in many of these communities if it is targeted appropriately and correctly into facilities that have been identified from within the community.

Absolutely. The other thing is that it is sustainable and has certainty. Local authorities, for example, depend on funding over time. Often with sports capital funding, for example, they are able to identify a project and then over time they are certain of funding. RAPID has to be the same. We have to have this on a permanent basis for people who are planning in these communities. In places like Ballymun or Finglas, the problem often is that people are exhausted with initiatives. There is initiative after initiative and there is a new approach and what we need is certainty of funding over time and a strategic approach. The Minister saw that when he came to Ballymun while in opposition, and I know he committed to investing in those communities. I welcome what he is doing in terms of RAPID and I call on the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure to ensure there is sufficient funding. I also credit Joe O'Brien in the previous Government, who had the enhancing communities programme. It builds on this but we have to learn the lessons from that programme too as to where things did not go right. Enhancing infrastructure has to be co-ordinated and sustainable. The local authority has to have confidence over time, and we need to make sure that over time, it increases in its scale.

I know, and the Deputy has touched on something there about initiative exhaustion. That is important because we are often asking the same people in communities to lead out on these on the ground. We are generally always asking the same people in local authorities and in local development companies to drive these on the ground. That is something both the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I will reflect on. It is important that we get the scheme back, that we have it on the books of the Department, that it grows in the years to come and that it will make a difference. I think the difference will be measured over a number of years. When I was with the Deputy in his constituency in the winter, I saw a couple of areas where small capital investments would make a big difference. They do not have to be trophy projects or massive projects. Small investments will deliver security to a community. I hear the Deputy 100%. We will engage with the Department of justice around community safety partnerships as well. Definitely, we will reflect on his point about initiative exhaustion. That is very real. For this to be successful, we have to ensure that people have faith in it.