The Southern Regional Assembly welcomes the recent announcements from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage of funding allocations under Call 2 of the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF).
This scheme, an initiative of Government through Project Ireland 2040: the National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan, aims to deliver compact and sustainable regeneration projects across our cities and larger towns. It is a key catalyst for infrastructure delivery and place-making projects that will deliver rejuvenation in our urban centres.
Call 2 was announced and opened for applications in January 2020 under the central theme of Compact Growth. A competitive process, it is a testament to the hard work and merit of the projects submitted that over €640 million has been awarded for projects across the Local Authorities in the Southern Region.
Successful projects include Cork City Docklands, Grand Parade Quarter Cork City, World Class Waterfront Limerick, Living Limerick City Centre, Waterford City Centre Regeneration, Kilkenny City Centre Enhanced Liveability Project, Abbey Quarter Phase 2A Kilkenny City, Public Realm and Pedestrian Linage Project Carlow Town, Ennis Town Centre Public Realm Regeneration, Positioning Tralee as a Regional Economic Driver and Destination Town, Trinity Wharf Wexford Town, Destination Killarney, Mallow Town Centre Regeneration, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Energy Nenagh and the Passage West-Ringaskiddy-Carrigaline Harbour Cluster
Further details on the URDF can be found at https://www.gov.ie and a summary report on the funding allocations is due to be published shortly.
This level of funding is significant and transformative, assisting strategic projects that are supported for delivery by the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) for the Southern Region and Metropolitan Area Strategic Plans (MASPs) for Cork, Limerick-Shannon and Waterford.
Alignment with the RSES and MASPs, criteria of the application and assessment process, is required for these projects. The SRA is proud to see such success achieved across our Cities and Metropolitan Areas and Key Towns and commend the Local Authorities and application teams in their recent success.
This level of funding into our Region is important, as the Southern Region has the State’s most significant proposition to achieve the aim of Regional Parity. By 2040, the population of the Region is projected to rise to almost two million, requiring new homes and jobs.
The NPF and RSES targets our three cities to grow by over 50% to 2040 as part of a structural realignment in population, homes, and jobs away from the Greater Dublin Area with a 50:50 distribution of growth between the Eastern and Midlands region and the Southern and Northern and Western Region.
These are ambitious targets which have never been accomplished in the State’s history. Their achievement requires a step change in the scale and nature of investment to the Regions, especially to the metropolitan areas of Cork, Limerick- Shannon, Waterford and Key Towns.
The URDF Call 2 funding allocations are therefore strongly supported. Actions on these projects across the Region will progress our vision for the Southern Region to become one of Europe’s most “Creative and Innovative”, “Liveable” and “Greenest” Regions. Further details on the RSES and MASP can be found by clicking here.