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

There is a benefit to introducing a dedicated community centre capital programme to provide large-scale capital grants for significant refurbishment, retrofitting, modernisation and the construction of community centres. The need for more significant capital investment to support community infrastructure has become more evident during the pandemic.

A proposal for an increase in the level of capital funding provided for community development has been included in my Department's submission to the review of the national development plan, which is being undertaken by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Separately, my Department has developed a proposal for a community centre capital programme as part of a wider community-recovery investment fund. This was submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for consideration for inclusion in Ireland's national recovery and resilience plan proposals. Programming is under way for the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF. My officials have completed a screening questionnaire on the proposed funding in respect of ERDF co-financing. This has been sent to the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. The development of a dedicated community centre capital programme will depend on the success of the proposals.

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