·         The contents of the Management Report for January 2019 were noted.

Rural and Urban Regeneration Funding:

Cllr. Shanagher enquired if there was any progress on funding for the proposed Innovation Hub in Monksland.

Director of Services, Majella Hunt confirmed that under the Rural Regeneration Fund, four applications were submitted and two received approvals but not the innovation centre. Feedback will be received from the Department shortly on the applications submitted as to why they were successful or unsuccessful and a second call for applications is expected in the coming months.

The members discussed the Urban and Rural Regeneration as follows:

·         Can the application for Monksland not be submitted under Urban Funding? It has a population of 5,000 to 6,000 and is a new town and there is concern it will be omitted. There is an issue as to whether Monksland is Rural or Urban. The Council have heavily invested in infrastructure here but works to Cloonakilla National School need to be ready for the next round of funding.

·         Welcome the recent announcement of funding under the regeneration schemes. Enterprise Castlerea is delighted with the €1.54m to be invested in The Hub and thankful for the foresight of the members of Roscommon County Council for the matching funding and the executive for the quality for the submissions.

·         Welcome the recent significant funding announcements for projects in Boyle, Castlerea, Ballaghaderreen and Tulsk.

·         Are all towns and villages eligible to apply for funding for projects in 2019?

·         Funding in the Boyle area including the Lough key to Boyle Greenway is very welcome while the Royal Hotel project is very significant for the area.

·         Has the loan for matched funding been sanctioned by the Department?

·         Thanks to the Members for commitment regarding the Municipal funding to be used for the matched funding

Majella Hunt responded as follows:

Roscommon is the only named town in County Roscommon under the Urban Regeneration Funding category and therefore any Monksland project must be included under the Rural category. A population of 6,000 is also defined as Rural under the guidelines.  Following an assessment of the feedback received, the Monksland project will be resubmitted with others in the next call.

Under the Rural category, all other towns will be examined for projects and the projects have to be resubmitted each time if nor previously successful.  The application for the loan has been sent to the Department and clarifications sought with feedback expected for the members for the next meeting.