Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and members. I wish the committee well in its role over the coming months and years. My responsibilities include in the area of rural development, responsibility for the oversight of the work of the Western Development Commission and of the Atlantic economic corridor task force, functions relating to the Department's input on rural broadband and the national planning framework, overview of a number of the funding schemes under the community programme, responsibility for the Charities Regulatory Authority, excluding appointments of members of the board of the authority, and the responsibility for the Control of Dogs Act.

I am also responsible for identifying and advising on issues affecting rural communities with the business community arising from Britain's exit from the European Union. In relation to broadband, to complement the work of my colleague, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, preparing for the timely roll-out of broadband is a key priority will see a very significant level of new investment under the national broadband plan, NBP. The NBP’s ambition is to achieve 100% coverage of high speed broadband across Ireland. This is being done through a combination of accelerated commercial investment by telecoms operators, together with a State intervention to deliver access to high speed broadband to those parts of the country where there is no certainty that the commercial sector will invest. My Department is working with local authorities to ensure there are no local barriers to deployment and identifying priority areas for roll out. A provision of €2 million has been allocated to my Department for this task in 2017.

The Department also has lead responsibility for developing the relationship with the State and community and voluntary sector and for setting the policy framework. This sector has €12.7 million budgeted in 2017. The Department’s community and voluntary supports and programmes provide a cohesive framework of support for the community and voluntary sector. This supports volunteer centres and volunteer information services nationwide, as well as a number of national organisations such as Volunteer Ireland and Young Social Innovators. The funding of all these organisations is designed to strengthen and foster volunteerism in Ireland, building a support structure for volunteering locally from the bottom up. This is key to the Department’s citizen engagement objectives and supports the spirit of participation in communities.

The scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector, SSNO, is a key element of the State’s support for the role of the sector. The SSNO provides multi-annual funding towards core costs of national organisations in the sector, with a focus on organisations that provide supports to those who are disadvantaged.

The Revised Estimates provide for €4.4 million in current funding in 2017 for the charities regulatory authority, CRA. The charities regulator is Ireland's national statutory regulator for charitable organisations. It is an independent authority which was established on 16 October 2014 under the Charities Act 2009 and now comes under the remit of my Department. The general function of the regulator is to regulate charitable organisations operating in Ireland, in order to increase public trust and confidence in their management and administration. The regulator is independent in the performance of its statutory functions. Since its establishment in 2014, great progress has been achieved by the CRA. By the end of September this year, 8,748 charities were registered. Other important milestones achieved include the completion of an independent organisational review to define the resources required to implement the Charities Act, 2009, and the publication of a strategic plan for 2016-2018. I am delighted to be working with the Minister, Deputy Ring, in this new Department.