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

I would add that 600 community development workers have been freed from the majority of their core work to assist with helping and supporting people who are arriving from Ukraine into their locality. There was also a10% increase in the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, budget from last year. That will add a significant additional resource and capacity to the local development companies going forward.

In terms of community volunteering, exceptional additional funding for staff resources is being provided by my Department to two volunteer centres in Wexford and in South Dublin, which are dealing with particularly large pinch points. They are providing support in front-line reception hubs. As well as this, there is a community services programme in Lisdoonvarna Fáilte, which is another area that is experiencing a high demand. There is exceptional additional funding allocated to Lisdoonvarna Fáilte to assist in its efforts in co-ordinating the response to Ukrainian refugees.

I take the Deputy’s point about resources being shifted. We have had to act quickly and that was the quickest way that we could do it. However, as I said earlier, we will be maintaining close contact with the organisations on the ground and with their national representative bodies as the weeks and months go forward.

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