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

I thank Deputy Canney for the invitation and I take the other Deputies' points as well. We support the national men's sheds organisation through the scheme to support national organisations, SSNO, and applications for that will be opening either late this year or early next year. That is just a point of information that may be useful.

On the question of sustainability, and I recall Deputy Kerrane's previous contribution on this, having a number of funding opportunities that are locally based and connected to the local authority where the knowledge is better than what we have centrally is a good route in terms of sustainability as well. However, I take the point about predictability. Relatively small funds can get a lot of men's and women's sheds off the ground and there a number of funds, not just the ones I have mentioned such as the CEP, SICAP and LEADER. Other Departments deal with this as well particularly in the area of mental health, and I would suggest looking at the Healthy Ireland initiative. Multiple funding streams are healthy as regards sustainability into the future.

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