Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 75, 82, 114 and 129 together.

I am committed to supporting communities across Ireland through my Department's two strategies, namely, Our Rural Future and Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities. As part of that commitment and in line with the programme for Government, I launched the €15 million community centres investment fund in April this year. The fund was available to community groups under three categories. Category 1 was for grants up to €25,000, category 2 for grants between €25,001 and €100,000 and category 3 for grants between €100,001 and €300,000. The fund closed to applications in July.

Interest was extremely high, with more than 1,000 applications received under the three categories. All applications were subject to a competitive appraisal process that has been ongoing since the closing date. Earlier this month, I announced more than €12.5 million in funding for 580 successful category 1 applicants, details of which are available on my Department's website. Due to the high level of applications to the fund, the appraisal process is still ongoing for categories 2 and 3. I expect to make announcements on the outcome of the process in the coming weeks.

In response to the extremely high level of demand for the fund, I am delighted to inform the House that I have secured €20 million in funding in the budget for a 2023 community centres investment fund. It is intended that the 2023 fund will be targeted at new-build community centres, as well as upgrades and improvements to existing centres. The details of the scheme are currently being developed by officials within my Department and further details will be announced early next year.

The funding under the community centres investment fund was open to groups from both urban and rural areas, particularly disadvantaged areas. When I announced the funding last July, we tried to encompass as many projects as possible. We looked at works to improve communal facilities, such as kitchen and toilet facilities, energy retrofitting, including new windows, doors and heating systems, upgrades to lighting systems and stage areas, works to address safety concerns, including those identified as a result of fire safety audits, works to improve disability access, improvements to provide additional or better services to communities, such as meals for the elderly and youth facilities, works to develop community centres as social hubs through the development of community cinemas, youth hubs and community libraries, and essential maintenance work, such as repairs to roofs and so on. Many community centres were unable to do their usual fundraising during the Covid crisis. A large number had a leaking roof, for example, or needed to upgrade their kitchen. This was a particularly welcome fund and there was a large number of applications.

I was delighted to include upgrades to GAA clubhouses in the fund. Many clubhouses, particularly in rural areas, also function as community centres. They could not get money from the sports capital fund to upgrade the clubhouses because that funding is only for sports facilities. I was delighted to include them in this round of funding, which meant we were able to support a good number of GAA centres around the country.

As Members know they are at the heart of rural Ireland. As I said, I was delighted to secure the €20 million for the further iteration of the fund in 2023. It will once again look at more upgrades and refurbishment of existing centres. We tried to fund as many as we could. In the case of those that did not get funding this time, either the application was not eligible or did not meet the criteria or it scored very badly. A great many of the applications were funded. About 90% of them were funded. We tried to spread the loaves and fishes as far as possible and it was very well received.

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