Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The area of Mountwood and Fitzgerald Park is one of the areas of disadvantage in my constituency. It is an area which contains old local authority flats and maisonettes which are now undergoing redevelopment. For many years there has been a community development project based in the area, which has done excellent work in the local community in providing educational supports, community activities and general support in the community. The project is housed in a number of disused flats in one of the blocks which is due for demolition.

The members of the project have had the ambition over the years to include a purpose-built community centre as part of the redevelopment. Following much negotiation with the local authority, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and other State agencies, they eventually got to the point where a community centre was agreed and designed, and the intention was to progress it as part of the redevelopment. A financing package was put together to provide for the building of the community centre, which involved the provision of funding through the local authority, with some funding coming from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government through the dormant accounts fund, the young persons' facilities fund and the equal opportunities fund, which is operated by Pobal for child care facilities.

The issue arising is that one part of that funding, namely, the equal opportunities funding for child care purposes, which was made available directly to the community development project, is in danger of being lost. The project understands that those moneys, which make up one quarter of the amount required to develop the community centre, are due for what is called decommittal at the end of this year. The difficulty is that it appears documentation and paperwork which was required from the different agencies has not been completed. The community development project appears to be somewhat out of the loop as much of this work is being carried out by the different statutory agencies involved.

I very much commend the work of the officials of both the local authority and the statutory agencies in their efforts to get this community centre up and running. However, I am concerned about the bottom line in this regard, which is that if this part of the funding is lost, all the pieces will fall apart and the community centre may not be built or, at best, it would be delayed for years.

This is a facility the local community has sought for many years. The community development project has pushed ahead with it and has worked patiently with the statutory agencies involved. Those involved thought they had got to the point where everything was running smoothly. They thought all the funding was in place and that the scheme was agreed and would go ahead in due course. The risk that is now presented puts it in jeopardy.

What I seek from the Minister is a reassurance for the community and the community development project in this disadvantaged area that this money will not be lost and the community will not be put at risk. If there must be an extension on the time limit that appears to attach to this element of the funding, I ask that the extension be granted to allow for whatever paperwork must be completed so that this community centre can be proceeded with at the earliest possible opportunity.

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