Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising an issue that is very close to my heart, to be honest, in terms of what I see as an historic gap in the allocation of funding to community facilities. Whereas we have historically and traditionally allocated grants and lottery funding for sports facilities, there has never really been a dedicated capital fund nationally for community centres. It is my view that there should be such a fund. Indeed, a commitment in this regard is included in the programme for Government. I would, however, like that commitment to be even more expansive than it is in the programme for Government. We need to move on this matter. Very often, as a result of the kind of gap to which I refer, the proposers or patrons of various schemes have had to take different circuitous routes to try to secure funding, be it by means of an application for a sports grant made through a sporting facility within a community centre or, for example, via the community development supports available from local authorities.

In Newcastle, Mr. Seamus Davey and the community association have been doing the groundwork. The Deputy indicated that Galway City Council has come up with approximately €900,000, which, to be fair, is a substantial amount. What I would favour is a tripartite partnership involving the Government, local authorities and communities to put together the wherewithal to enable either the enhancement of existing community facilities, extensions to such facilities or new facilities in large and developing areas and places such as Newcastle that have large populations. As the Deputy stated, the Newcastle area is home to approximately 6,000 people.

We put together the community enhancement fund, which is primarily for disadvantaged communities. Approximately €2 million was allocated in respect of this fund, which was launched in June of last year. In the second round of funding last August, an additional €5 million was allocated to the Department of Rural and Community Development under the July stimulus package. Again, following through on the programme for Government, I was anxious to give additional money to communities. Community organisations have been very effective in responding to Covid-19. The purpose of that funding was to provide grants for community centres and community facilities. It was targeted at measures that would stimulate local communities while enhancing community facilities. Some 3,000 projects were supported through the 2020 community enhancement programme, including more than 1,400 under the second round, which was targeted at community centres and facilities.

The 2021 community enhancement programme was launched in May, with funding of approximately €4.5 million. That is from the Department of Rural and Community Development and is open to all community groups. Perhaps the scale of allocation there may not be sufficient for the project the Deputy has outlined but it is something on which we can build. As we both agree, there is currently no dedicated stand-alone funding stream for capital works for community centres. The Department of Rural and Community Development accepts the principle and believes that there is benefit in the introduction of a dedicated community centre capital programme to provide large-scale capital grants for significant refurbishment, retrofitting and modernisation works across the network of community centre infrastructure. That work is under way in the context of the review of the national development plan, which is being undertaken by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. In addition, there is the programming being done in respect of the European Regional Development Fund and the work the Department is doing in that regard. That is something on which we will be working.

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