Four projects in the north west — two in Sligo and two in Donegal — are among the first 18 applicants to benefit under the government’s one billion euro Rural Regeneration and Development Fund.
The successful projects, announced this afternoon in Sligo by Taoiseach Leo Varakdar and Minister Michael Ring, are to get a total of almost twenty-five million euro.
The projects are spread across about a dozen counties.
In Sligo, the Yeats cultural heritage trail is to get half a million euro.
The trail will include 15 locations associated with the Nobel Prize-winning poet as well as having 90 new signs, 15 interpretation boards, seating, a website and an app.
The Strandhill Surf Centre, for which the Taoiseach turned the sod this afternoon, will receive over 600, 000 euro.
This is a national centre of excellence for surfing that will be fully fitted out to meet international standards.
In Donegal, Swan Park in Buncrana, Co Donegal, will get 1.7m euro.
It had been a major tourist attraction but has been closed since flooding in 2017.
This allocation will now enable its restoration.
And an existing business park in Gaoth Dobhair is to receive 1.5m euro.
This will enable the provision of an extra 1,725 square metres of office space for setting up businesses on the second floor of a building there.
The Taoiseach’s visit to Sligo was on the same day as reports that Dublin and its commuter belt are getting up to more than 60 percent of new jobs in the country.
But, speaking to Ocean FM News, Mr Varadkar says the fact is that 60% of jobs created this year are OUTSIDE of the capital.
Sligo/Leitrim Fine Gael TD Tony McLoughlin says the allocations announced today are a major boost:
Meanwhile, when the Taoiseach arrived at The Model arts centre in Sligo this afternoon, a number of anti-abortion protesters had gathered, holding up posters for him to see as he drove past.
