Mr. William Parnell:

I thank the Senator for raising those points. I will first deal with the question on funding for various organisations and then address the issue of the islands. The Senator is correct about the difficulties that have been faced, particularly by groups such as voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. They found it very difficult to avail of some of the supports the Government provided which were targeted at businesses operating on a commercial basis. In May, the Department launched a new €40 million support package precisely for the organisations referred to by the Deputy, that is, organisations that could not raise funds because of the Covid restrictions or social enterprises that could not trade because they simply had to close down or reduce the level of activity in which they were involved. As part of that package, €35 million was made available through a Covid-19 stability fund. Some 600 organisations have received almost €31 million under that fund. Several island-based organisations were among those that received funding. These are small amounts of funding that take account of the level or percentage of income the organisations have lost as a result of the Covid restrictions. It is very much targeted at organisations providing front-line services in terms of childcare, elder care and so on in the community. An additional €10 million was allocated to the fund in October by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, and that funding will be distributed shortly.

Separately, €5 million was committed by the Government to a fund entitled Innovate Together. The fund also attracts philanthropic support. It too is funding community-based organisations, but is more aimed at helping them to adapt their organisations and services to be able to pivot and continue to operate in a post-Covid context. It is probably worth stating that €5 million was made available in the July stimulus package to help community centres to reopen safely.

Those are some of the initiatives that the Department has taken to try to support these organisations. In addition, the community services programme helps to keep many of the organisations to which the Deputy referred staffed. Although several organisations struggled with being able to keep their services running, the Department has continued to provide funding to those organisations. I hope there is sufficient breadth of funding and initiatives available in this area. If there are any particular organisations about which the Deputy would like to inquire, we can discuss that after the meeting.