Mr. Terry Hyland:

I thank the Senator for the questions. We are delighted to be here today and really appreciate the invitation. The Senator is right to say that SICAP is a very impactful programme. It is a national programme that is delivered in the heart of every disadvantaged community in the country. It has huge reach. Between 2018 and 2023, for example, we engaged with 131,000 individuals, over 6,000 community groups and 209,000 members of family groups. It was hugely impactful across that period but unfortunately, according to the survey on income and living conditions which was published in March of this year, the at risk of poverty rate, which is the percentage of people with less than 60% of the median disposable income level, increased from 10.6% in 2023 to 11.7% in 2024. Numbers-wise, that is 618,000 people. If the cost-of-living supports were pulled away, that figure would actually have been 14.1%. That tells us what the cost-of-living supports have been doing recently. In terms of consistent poverty, which combines low income with enforced deprivation, the figures rose from 3.6% in 2023 to 5% in 2024. Child poverty, which is a huge focus at the moment, was 15.3% in 2024 compared to 14.2% in 2023. Those indicators are important and hopefully they will inform decision-making at budget time.

Cost-of-living supports are important because they help to deal with immediate need whereas programmes like SICAP, as Mr. O'Donnell said in his opening statement, are about sustainable approaches to tackling poverty on the ground within communities and about social inclusion. SICAP employs community development workers who work as boots on the ground, hand-holding communities and individuals to come up with bespoke, tailor-made plans to deal with the issues they face within their households, whether that is progression towards the labour market, returning to education, dealing with transport issues or securing childcare. A tailor-made plan is built with our community development workers and we link in with local agencies and actors on the ground. We also provide wraparound supports within our own organisations to deal with those issues.

In terms of the LEADER programme and simplifying the application process, the Senator is right that because LEADER is funded by the EU, bureaucratic issues transfer across to the application process. We are advocating as a network and working with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht at a European level to make the application process more simple for people to access. We want people to access the LEADER programme who may not necessarily have had the opportunity to apply for it previously. That is really important and we are pushing for that. We would love the opportunity to work with the committee on channelling that message to the relevant parties at EU level and within the Department. The Senator is correct that there is a body of work to be done on simplifying the application process.

In terms of the rural social scheme and the Tús initiative, the Senator is absolutely correct and in our pre-budget submission we advocate that people who participate in labour activation schemes such as community employment and Tús or social schemes like the RSS should not be at a financial loss. Currently, a lot of people are because in order to get to their scheme placement, they have to put diesel in the car and they have other expenses to get there. The current top-up rate of €27.50 on the payment does not cover it, unfortunately, and that is why we are advocating for that nominal increase of €7.50 per week in each year over the next three years to try to alleviate that. If we lost those schemes tomorrow, I fear what would happen to communities across Ireland.