4150. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if County Offaly was assessed for inclusion in the SIOL programme; if he will publish the scoring or assessment outcome; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62200/26]

4151. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if CSO data and a study by an organisation (details supplied) were used in determining SIOL allocations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62199/26]

4152. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the criteria used by Pobal to determine SIOL programme locations; if County Offaly meets any of the deprivation thresholds applied; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62198/26]

4158. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if he intends to expand the SIOL programme to additional counties; if County Offaly will be prioritised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62201/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4150, 4151, 4152 and 4158 together.

The new SÍOL programme was launched on 8 July 2026, in line with the Programme for Government commitment to deliver funding for projects and initiatives in urban areas with the highest concentration of disadvantage. SÍOL means ‘Seed’ in English and SÍOL stands for Scéim Infheistíochta ag Obair Le Chéile, which translates to ‘Working Together Investment Scheme’. Capital funding of €31.5 million has been secured up to 2030 in the National Development Plan to support the new programme. Funding of €5m has been allocated to the programme for 2026 and annual funding is expected to reach €7m by 2030.

The programme will target small areas of disadvantage in our towns and cities, providing funding for infrastructure to improve the areas and the lives of the communities. Priority is being given to those Small Areas with the highest population of extreme disadvantage, and the scheme is designed to provide similar supports to these areas that is given to rural areas through schemes such as CLÁR.

The new programme is focussed initially on 15 areas that have been designated as SÍOL areas. The programme takes into consideration the areas in Ireland already covered by the CLÁR programme, to ensure geographical complementarity.

A number of datasets were analysed by my department to develop a robust methodology for selecting the areas to be designated as SÍOL areas. The methodology was informed by data from the 2022 Census which was published by the CSO, the Pobal HP Deprivation Index and the ESRI's Urban and Rural Life in Ireland 2019 & 2025 reports. Different approaches were used to identify the town and city areas that would be included in the SÍOL programme.

The approach for identifying towns that would be designated for inclusion in the SÍOL programme was informed by the ESRI's Urban and Rural Life in Ireland 2019 & 2025 reports, which identified Independent Urban Towns as being the areas most in need of financial assistance outside of the cities. There are five towns in County Offaly which are designated as Independent Urban Towns.

As there is no dataset available that directly details the deprivation levels of towns classed as Independent Urban Towns, the Department utilised the Pobal HP Deprivation Index dataset containing deprivation scores for Built Up Areas, which have the boundaries that are the closest approximation to the boundaries of Independent Urban Towns.

As the towns in County Offaly do not contain any Small Areas that are classified as being Extremely Disadvantaged, no areas in the county were considered eligible for inclusion in the programme on this occasion. However, the SÍOL programme will be kept under regular review by my department with a view to potentially adding additional areas on an annual basis.