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

Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities, the Government's five-year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector, was published in 2019. It is a whole-of-government strategy led by my Department and implemented collaboratively with the sector by means of the cross-sectoral group on local and community development. The strategy is important in seeking to strengthen the community development, local development and community and voluntary sectors generally. It reaffirms the Government's commitment to supporting the sector while also recognising the reality of finite resources and the need to ensure that available resources are focused on providing effective services.

The strategy includes a commitment to develop a sustainable funding model to support the community and voluntary sector. Specific actions included in the strategy are the promotion of multi-annual funding approaches by Departments and agencies, appropriate cost recovery models to cover the costs of compliance, support for autonomous community and local development organisations and sustainable funding models to support community and social enterprises.

My Department is aware of the challenges facing organisations in the local and community development sectors when it comes to the recruitment and retention of staff. Community and voluntary organisations are funded by a wide range of Departments and agencies through different funding schemes and programmes. Although my Department provides funding to some community and voluntary organisations, there is no national pay agreement for the community and voluntary sector as a whole. The Department of Rural and Community Development does not have a mandate to set pay rates for what is a wide array of diverse and independent organisations, most of which get funding directly from other Departments.

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