I welcome the THRIVE programme, which was announced by our colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, earlier this month. It offers regional and rural towns an opportunity to refurbish historic buildings up to a value of €7 million. It is a great opportunity for a town such as Longford to regenerate Connolly Barracks. The local authority is already looking at submitting plans in that regard. Significant money has been spent on regeneration, active travel and other such initiatives but the centres of many of these towns have been hollowed out and we need to invest in them. This is a great opportunity and I hope the Government's full support will be behind Longford County Council as it finally seeks to come up with a plan for the Connolly Barracks campus in Longford.

I thank the Deputy very much. He can be assured that the Government will be very keen to fund any plan to bring the barracks back into use and back to life. I do not know the details of the project but the Deputy can be assured that it is now very much on my radar.