Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank both witnesses for their presentations, and all those who work in LEADER programmes throughout the country. I have been involved in a number of them in my own County Kildare over a long period and have realised the great work they do on the ground.

I want to pick up on one aspect mentioned by the Chairman in his introduction of the representatives, namely, tackling isolation. Maybe we could get some comments on what is happening there. I am aware of a great group in County Kildare called Older Voices, which does great work in tackling isolation throughout all the socioeconomic groups and obviously that is the type of model I would like to see rolled out. I am sure it is in other areas but not all. That group has done some tremendous work over the period the pandemic has been with us. Rural isolation, and indeed urban isolation, is there and we must tackle it. The witnesses should comment on their thoughts on how we can tackle it in an ongoing way and whether additional funding is needed to do so

On food poverty, I brought this up the last day when the Society of St. Vincent de Paul appeared before us, but I am finding there are new groups starting up in a lot of towns and villages. In some cases there are three or four groups competing with one another in some of these towns. I realise the Minister has organised a working group and Mr. Saunders has spoken about that but obviously there is need for a national programme to co-ordinate this. Taking in and totally supporting what Deputy Paul Donnelly has said, there are other issues at play here and we must tackle those first but at the moment there are so many groups around the country that we must co-ordinate them and I would welcome a comment on that.

Obviously, I support the work the local employment services have done and it is important to say they do great work, to acknowledge it and to support the witnesses' calls and those of all members in this meeting. On the LEADER programme, Mr. Saunders mentioned animation and the animators we have and I am familiar with those. It is very hard to get the funding. Deputy Ó Cuív has rightly said spend and somebody will send but sometimes it is very hard to get there. Mr. Saunders commented that he was hoping those rules would change. Maybe he could give a little detail on what he is hoping for because we would all echo those calls. Anybody who has been involved in supporting community and particularly voluntary groups in filling in those forms would definitely support his calls that there be some changes in that regard.

I will mention some parochial stuff related to County Kildare once again and perhaps this is reflected throughout the country. There is a perception when it comes to allocating funding, particularly in County Kildare, that it is a rich county - a K4 that has been there for a long time - I have mentioned before. The witnesses might comment on how, within every county, there are pockets that need help. As I said, LEADER and SICAP do great work in County Kildare but they need support and additional funding. The Department must recognise that there are such pockets in every county, even if there is a perception that these counties are rich in some senses.

I have two final questions. The training budget for the CE scheme is being raised with me a lot at the moment. CE schemes are struggling at present and Mr. Saunders mentioned it in his opening statement. He might comment on the benefits of that training scheme and what it does for CE schemes. Finally, on SICAP, it has been mentioned that there has been a 50% reduction since 2008. Obviously there is a lot of work that can be done in that regard. What headline items can the representatives envisage and what could be done, were we to go back towards those 2008 figures?