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

The community and voluntary sector Covid-19 stability fund provided up to €35 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund to organisations in the sector and social enterprises. The fund was intended to provide a targeted, once-off, cash injection for organisations and groups currently delivering critical front-line services to those most in need in our society and in danger of imminent closure due to lost fundraised or traded income as a direct result of restrictions. The criteria of the scheme stated that any grants awarded would be dependent on the need identified and organisations approved for funding were prioritised on that basis.

My Department received 1,060 applications during the application period. To date, three tranches of successful applications have been announced, allocating funding of over €25 million to 489 organisations. This funding is now supporting the delivery of many critical front-line services in every part of the country. A full list of successful applicants is now available on the website.

To give Deputies a taste of some projects they might be interested in, the Clondalkin Blue Skies Initiative received €105,000, the Lucan Disability Action Group received €75,000, Inner City Helping Homeless received €98,000, while in other areas of the country, Recovery Haven Kerry received €50,000 and Longford Women's Link received €104,000. Though the fund is closed to new applications at the moment, additional checks are continuing on a number of applications and a further announcement in respect of successful applicants will be made shortly.

At the moment, there are no plans for a second round of the stability scheme. The scheme is administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department and is innovative in its cross-departmental nature, as it is a collaboration with the new Department of Children, Disability, Equality and Integration and the Department of Health, with input from other relevant Departments.

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