Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his input. We shared a different chamber not so long ago and I recall him passionately defending his community there. There are not too many speeches I remember from that chamber but that was one of them. I thank him for doing that and for defending a crucial community resource in this case.

There are two halves to the answer to the question, the first of which relates to the structural funding issue. I understand that the Department provided some funding in that regard at the beginning of this year for the upkeep of the structures. In essence, the Deputy is talking about the community services programme, CSP, of the Department, which supports more than 400 organisations such as the Deputy described to provide crucial services throughout the country through a social enterprise model. It is an essential programme that provides a variety of community, business and social enterprises to deliver a range of local services and employment opportunities, such as community centres, Meals on Wheels, like in my area of Balbriggan, and the Skerries Mills café. They are crucial community focal points.

Services are being delivered in marginalised and isolated communities that would not be delivered were it not for the CSP, which supports more than 2,000 real jobs in various parts of the country. CSP funding is provided as a fixed annual contribution towards the cost of an agreed number of full-time equivalent, FTE, positions, including that of manager where warranted. A total of €32,000 per annum is provided towards costs for the manager position and €19,033 per annum towards the cost of an FTE position. These positions are permanent jobs, not activation programme positions, which last only for a defined period. The CSP is a contribution towards the salaries. The jobs are not on the direct payroll of the Department, which is an important distinction.

The funding is a fixed annual contribution that must be co-funded by the organisations concerned from other sources, such as from income generated from the use of facilities and services provided. I acknowledge the Deputy's outlining of the difficulty of providing that part of the funding in the current circumstances. Supported organisations are obliged under the CSP to pay their employees at least the minimum wage level. I am aware that a number of CSP-supported organisations are paying their staff the living wage rate of €12.30 per hour. That said, during the Covid-19 crisis a significant number of CSP-supported services were unable to open or operate for a lengthy period, thereby reducing their ability to generate the required income.

To address this, the Department has a fund to assist CSP-supported organisations to retain their staff on the payroll during the Covid-19 restrictions when normal trading or other revenue-raising activities have been ceased or curtailed. The fund is providing additional funding to CSP-supported organisations that are most in need to enable them to pay their full-time CSP-supported employees €350 net per week, with a proportionate sum for part-time CSP-supported employees. It is important to make the distinction that the Department is supporting hte decisions but they are not payrolled by the Department. That is why the full wage is not covered. As I know, coming from where I do, it is wise to have several income streams if these crucial jobs are to be protected. In 2019, the Department appointed Indecon Economic Consultants to conduct an independent review of the programme. I will examine that in the weeks ahead to determine how we can progress and grow the programme.

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