I welcome the announcement today that Dundalk is set to benefit from a €2m grant allocation made available through the European Regional Development Fund under the Designated Urban Centres Grants Scheme 2014-2020. In total, €127m has been made available around Ireland to invest in our urban centres through 2020.
The €2m grant assistance announced today for Dundalk will fund the Clanbrassil Street and St. Nicholas Quarter Rejuvenation Scheme with matching funding provided by Louth County Council.
This is very welcome news for our town centre and will give a badly needed new lease of life to this area of the town. A number of improvements are expected to be carried out under the rejuvenation scheme and I would encourage Louth County Council to keep accessibility in mind at all times in going forward with this project. Full accessibility is a must for this project.
I continuously raise the issue of accessibility with Louth County Council officials. I have particularly highlighted the lack of accessibility right in our town centre including An Tain Theatre which is not properly accessible for wheelchair users or people with mobility issues. I have walked the town with wheelchair users assessing the accessibility situation for people with a disability and for people with buggies who also find it difficult to access certain areas of our town centre.
An excellent accessibility report was compiled in recent years by local man, John Morgan, which I brought to the attention of Louth County Council and would encourage that they look at this report again in light of this funding allocation. Disability groups and local people should be consulted on accessibility needs in the town before ground breaks on this project.
Full accessibility needs to be a priority in this rejuvenation scheme and I have written to the Chief Executive of Louth County Council on many occasions to highlight this matter.
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