Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the Chamber today to update Deputies on the work of my Department as part of the national efforts to address the challenges presented by Covid-19.

Community organisations, charities, social enterprises and the volunteers who assisted them have been an integral part of our country's response to the pandemic. While elements of our society and economy are now beginning to reopen, the reality is that community and the voluntary sector never closed. In recent weeks, when other sectors have been unable to operate, the community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises have stepped up to the plate in their local communities, delivering vital service to those most in need. While a whole-of-Government co-ordinated approach is the backbone in planning and managing the effects of this emergency, solutions are ultimately implemented at a community level. Recent weeks have demonstrated as never before the benefits of having a robust community structure in place. It is vital that we continue to support our communities as our country moves into recovery phase.

From the outset of the crisis, my Department has played a central role in supporting the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities. As a result of the partnership approach developed by my Department with the community and voluntary sector, we were well placed to respond quickly and effectively to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 crisis. Due to our expertise in the area, my Department was represented on the NPHET subgroup on vulnerable people and was instrumental in planning the Government's response to the needs of vulnerable people in our communities.

As an immediate response to the crisis, I published a Covid-19 action plan as the first step to support the community response. Its three key initiatives were: letting people know how and where to volunteer; increasing community supports for older people through a partnership with ALONE; and launching an email helpdesk supporting smaller community groups. At the same time, my Department produced a Covid-19 communication pack for communities. Following the launch of our action plan, my Department developed proposals for a whole-of-Government response to the needs of vulnerable people in our communities. This ultimately became the Government's Community Call initiative, an unprecedented mobilisation of national Government, local government and the community and voluntary sector to support vulnerable people in our community during the Covid-19 emergency.

The Community Call is managed locally by local authorities, led by chief executives who chaired a dedicated community forum in their local authority areas to respond to the needs of people cocooning in their homes. Crucially, the community forums included all of the State and community and voluntary organisations responding locally to the Covid-19 crisis. The Community Call initiative has ushered in a new way of working, a shared purpose and a significant level of collaboration between local and national Government, community and local development and the volunteer sector.

My Department has played a central role in the Community Call from its inception, sitting on the national oversight committee and providing funding and support for many elements of the community response. Last month, in response to the urgent need for equipment and other supports, I announced a €2.5 million Covid-19 emergency fund for community and voluntary groups taking part in the Community Call. Local authorities are distributing the funding to community groups supporting vulnerable people in getting through the crisis.

Volunteers have been very much to the forefront of the community response. Volunteer Ireland and local volunteer centres participated fully in the Community Call structures. With their help and advice, many pressing issues in relation to the community response, such as safe volunteering, volunteer management and Garda vetting, were dealt with efficiently and professionally. In response to the significant extra demand on their services, my Department provided additional financial support to our volunteer centres.

The Covid-19 community outreach scheme, run by The Wheel and Irish Rural Link, was another important element of the Community Call fund provided by my Department. Community champions are now in place in all local authority areas and are represented on local community response forums.

In addition, our public participation networks are currently playing a central role in the community response to the Covid-19 emergency, as evident by initiatives at local level throughout the country. The response by the 49 local development companies to Covid-19 has been rapid and widespread, with many of their 170,000 service users reached in the early days and weeks of the crisis. Local development companies played a key role in the Community Call, participating on all of the community forums and helping to co-ordinate the community response. Through the national social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, local development companies continue to work with the most disadvantaged in our society. This is more important than ever during the crisis.

In addition to the Community Call, we supported our public libraries, which were quick off the mark to expand and adapt to the digital service once the Covid-19 restrictions were imposed. Branches had to close, but our libraries are now delivering more services online and it is possible for new members to register online to avail of them. Over the last three months, I have provided an extra €400,000 to the library service to meet the demand for online services.

My Department has also responded to the urgent needs of the community and voluntary organisations, charities, and social enterprises that are suffering financial difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions. A few weeks ago, I announced a €40 million package of supports consisting on two key elements. First, a €35 million Covid-19 stability fund to assist organisations experiencing severe financial difficulties due to the reduction in fundraising and traded income as a direct result of the Covid-19 epidemic. The second part of the package is the €5 million Government contribution to the Innovate Together fund, which is also supported by charitable donations.

As well as developing the new funding schemes, existing supports provided by my Department have been enhanced in response to the epidemic. An example of this is the adoption of the seniors alert scheme to link with ALONE national helpline, offering a befriending service to participants. My Department and Pobal are allowing the maximum level of flexibility possible to community services programme, CSP, supported organisations to ensure they can continue to employ their staff and support their communities. We have also put in place a support fund which is providing an additional one-off payment to eligible CSP-supported organisations to assist with staffing costs in the short-term.

My Department also recognises the challenges being faced by local action groups in delivering the LEADER programme 2014-2020, and swiftly moved to introduce additional flexibility to support the ongoing operations.

Despite the cancellation of this year's Tidy Towns competition, I have committed that funding allocated to groups throughout the country this year will still be available to continue the great work in making our towns and villages attractive and welcoming.

I have outlined to Deputies my Department's work in responding to the Covid-19 crisis since the middle of March. As we are now beginning to ease the restrictions, it also has an important role to play in the recovery. Last week, I announced a package of measures under my Department's rural development investment programme to help rural economies and communities in the post-Covid recovery. This package includes €15 million for the town and village renewal scheme, €10 million for the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, and €5 million for the CLÁR programme. Each of these schemes has been adjusted this year to help rural towns and villages to adapt to how to do business and to how people can socialise within the context of the public health guidelines.

The rural regeneration and development fund will also be instrumental in supporting the economic recovery of rural areas following Covid-19. To date, funding of €148 million has been approved for 110 projects under the fund, and a budget of €53 million has been allocated to the fund for 2020.

A significant factor in the economic recovery of rural areas will be the availability of access to high-speed broadband. Broadband connection points will be opened across the State in the coming weeks and months, allowing many communities without reliable broadband an opportunity to work remotely and to conduct their business online from local facilities.

Social enterprises are also an important part of the local economy in rural areas and are well-placed to address our priorities in the Covid-19 recovery phase by creating jobs, generating local economic activity and addressing broader policy priorities relating to the environment and local services.

Above all, as we head into a new phase of the economic recovery it is important that no region is left behind, and that no person is left behind. We need to ensure we bring all of society with us. Covid-19 has brought about a shift in our values as a society, with greater emphasis placed on the value of our neighbours, our communities, and of being in this together. We have always known in Ireland that our communities-----

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