Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to meet the joint committee today to resume our discussions on my Department's Estimates for 2018. We had a very constructive and productive select committee meeting in April and I thank members for their suggestions. I look forward to continuing that discussion today.

We are focusing today on the community programme and the Charities Regulator. I will say only a few words of introduction before discussing the programmes in more detail.

I have already noted in my previous opening statement some of the key features of the community programme. The Department's 2018 Vote provides €133.596 million in funding for a range of community programmes. Two programmes, in particular, account for the bulk of this funding. Over €43 million is provided for the social inclusion and community activation programmes, SICAP. I launched the 2018-22 programme in Limerick in April. The aim of SICAP is to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality through local, regional and national engagement. The 2018 allocation will provide for the first year of a new five-year programme of important supports for people in disadvantaged communities. This will allow for the key essential front-line services delivered through earlier programmes to be maintained and further developed.

The second major programme is the community services programme, with an allocation of over €46 million. This programme provides financial supports to community organisations to deliver local services through a social enterprise model.

I want to mention a further critical part of the communities programme, namely, the libraries programme. I was delighted to open the new state-of-the-art Athy library on 3 May. It is a great community resource in its own right and a real symbol of the very dramatic changes that are happening in our libraries. Better services for users and an increased role in providing community resources of citizens and businesses are just some of the features of modern libraries around the country. I hope to launch later this year a new strategy for public libraries to capitalise on these developments and to drive the sector further forward in the coming years.

I want to affirm again the importance of these programmes and all the programmes in the wider community programme. This is especially true in the context of the national planning framework, with its emphasis on the three themes of equality, well-being and opportunity. The role of the Department in funding community development goes to the heart of those themes by supporting and empowering communities, particularly disadvantaged communities, and giving them the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from a new and more prosperous Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, might say a few words on the supports for volunteering and the Charities Regulator before we start the discussion.