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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 59 and 68 together, for which I thank Deputies Colm Burke, Higgins and O'Dowd.

I acknowledge the importance of community centres. They are the cornerstone of community life in many places around the country. My Department has a number of schemes that communities can avail of for the upkeep, enhancement or establishment of community centres. The Department provides small capital grants for the improvement of facilities through the community enhancement programme. The 2021 programme provided funding of €4.5 million and will be available again in 2022.

The €9 million community activities fund was recently launched to support community and voluntary groups impacted by Covid-19. This fund will help community groups, particularly in disadvantaged areas, with their running costs, such as utility or insurance bills, as well as with improvements to their facilities. In addition, the €49 million community services programme supports more than 420 community organisations, including community centres, to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model. Funding is provided as a contribution towards the cost of employing staff in these organisations.

The Minister referenced the town and village renewal scheme. It is also relevant to community centres, supporting the repurposing of community buildings in town centres to facilitate remote working and other projects to bring vacant and derelict buildings back into use. A new capital fund for the upgrade of community centres was referenced in the national development plan and funding of €5 million has been secured for this under budget 2022. The details of this capital scheme are currently being developed within my Department and it will be launched in 2022, with further details to be announced in due course.

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