It was announced today that €40 million in European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant assistance has been put aside for local authorities for designated gateway and hub towns across Ireland.
It is hoped that the scheme will enable investments in sustainable transport and urban regeneration measures in Irish urban centres to the tune of €127 million for the period 2014-2020. ERDF is providing €40 million to the projects, which are co-funded by the local authorities.
The European Regional Development Fund aims to improve the urban environment and revitalise Irish urban areas. It makes capital funding available to tackle social, economic, environmental, climate and demographic challenges and to contribute to an improvement in the development potential of Irish urban centres.
Projects that have been awarded funding are located in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Ennis, Kilkenny, Mallow, Tralee, Wexford, Athlone, Dundalk, Galway, Letterkenny, Mullingar, Sligo and Tullamore.
The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly has today commented, "Strong urban centres enable their regions to realise their potential in attractiveness for business investment for Foreign Direct Investment for talent and for tourism and to create conducive and attractive locations for investment and for people to live and work in.
"This investment in sustainable urban development recognises our cities and towns as the engines of the regional economy. This scheme will provide grant assistance to designated local authorities for urban capital projects."
Source: www.businessworld.ie