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

The emergence of men's sheds in recent years has been a positive development for communities across Ireland. They provide a safe, comfortable and inclusive environment where people of all ages can share skills, work on meaningful projects and connect with their communities. My Department is providing a range of supports which both men's and women's sheds can avail of, depending on the works being completed. For example, in May, I launched the 2021 community enhancement programme with funding of €4.5 million. The programme provides small grants to community groups to enhance their facilities and for the reopening of facilities.

The social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, has provided supports to more than 200 men's sheds since 2018, with small grants totalling over €80,000 being awarded to 69 men's sheds. This support will continue to be available throughout the current iteration of SICAP, which runs until 2023. Additionally, funding for men's sheds may be available through the €70 million LEADER transitional programme which was launched by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, earlier this year. This programme, which will cover the period from 2021 to 2022, came into effect on 1 April for new project applications. Crucially, the scheme to support national organisations provides multi-annual core funding to national organisations in the community and voluntary sector. The Irish Men's Sheds Association has been allocated €270,000 over the 36-month period of the scheme, which commenced in July 2019 and which will run to July 2022. These funding supports are available to all community groups, including men's and women's sheds, and I have no plans to establish a separate funding stream.

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