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

I thank the Deputy. I should mention to him that the forthcoming community centre fund may also be of relevance.

Specifically on the question about schools, I can certainly identify with that because there are plenty of examples I can think of where there are large rooms available that are not always accessible. Ultimately, it is, I presume, a question for the boards of management of these schools. I hope that as we come out of Covid-19 that we will have some positive announcements in the coming days on the easing of restrictions and that the schools may be more open to doing this then. Obviously, for the past two years, the boards of management of schools have been very reluctant to rent those rooms out, and, of course, they were not allowed to do so.

On another aspect, I have talked a great deal about facilities under the community employment programme, CEP, and the community activities fund. There is also the Tidy Towns initiative for activating community groups. The Minister should be making an announcement about the 2022 competition soon. Some €1.5 million is being put towards that initiative last year and it is a great way of activating communities at a very grassroots level.

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