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

To reiterate, my Department's mission is to promote rural and community development and support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland. We deliver this funding and supports to local communities and groups through implementing policies designed to enhance economic and social opportunities for individuals which improve the quality of life in all our communities.

Overall responsibility for adult education rests with my colleague, the Minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, and information on heritage matters may be best sought from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. However, my Department has been proactive in ensuring that individuals and community groups can access accessible information and advice on all supports available to them. In addition to the information and videos on supports which are currently available on gov.ie, in 2019, my Department hosted a series of nationwide events in rural locations to highlight to communities the opportunities available to them in terms of funding and supports from Government and State agencies. This was complemented by my Department's "Helping Hands" country-wide workshops for organisations and community groups which provided hands-on guidance on how to make and submit applications to access funding supports from my Department.

In the present Covid-19 environment, continuing to share information with communities on the supports available to assist them is more important than ever. In this regard, my Department will continue to host online engagements with stakeholders on the short-term and longer-term impacts of Covid-19 on rural areas and any consequential actions which need to be taken to assist the economic and social recovery of these areas. These engagements will input into the development of a new rural policy for Ireland for 2020-25, to be published shortly.

With respect to job seeking, training opportunities and facilitating adult learning, my Department also directly provides a range of supports. The social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, stands out as one of the key ones. Some 23,261 people completed a lifelong learning course under SICAP in the period 2018-19. My Department funds local development companies to work with disadvantaged individuals and groups through SICAP, offering a range of integrated supports.

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