§ 35. Mr. KnapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on his Department's plans for the regeneration of the county towns of Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. NeedhamI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley, West (Dr. Blackburn) on 1 February 1990 at column337. Since then the International Fund for Ireland—IFI—has made available up to £3 million this year for a third urban development programme and has announced a new programe focused on smaller towns—those with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. Both these programmes are administered by the Department of the Environment's planning service on behalf of the IFI.
The Department of the Environment has consultants working on regeneration strategies in Downpatrick and the Craigavon area and regeneration partnership arrangements with district councils in Armagh and Carrickfergus.