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

The Deputy made an important point about the role of SICAP, in that it does one-to-one work with people while also supporting community groups. She mentioned a figure of 15,000. That will be an important role for SICAP. It is important that we support Ukrainian groups that are organising themselves. SICAP would be well placed to do that, but it is also a good use of resources to support others in developing their own groups and carving out their own paths.

Community response forums will be useful in making the most of the resources. That there are 600 community workers is good, and that number is growing with the 10% increase in the budget, but there are demands on them as well. The best use of their time will be achieved by co-ordinating with community response forums, given that there are other community groups that can add to the community workers' capacity. The community response forums will play an important role in ensuring that we get the most out of SICAP.

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