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

In terms of other Departments, particularly in the case of the section 39 organisations the Deputy mentioned, this comes down to service level agreements. I point to a document that was agreed by the Government in the year before last. It is the shared values and principles document. It encourages Departments to engage more with community and voluntary organisations that we are dependent on and to build that relationship. That document is something I constantly push any time I get a chance to mention it.

Specifically, we have restructured the community services programme and have given extra weighting to organisations that operate in an environment where it is harder to generate their own income. Organisations in deprived areas also get a higher allocation. That was done in response to some of the challenges that have been presented to us.

We are looking at applications for additional staff under CSP as well. The window may reopen - it will be later in the year at the earliest - for new CSP applications as well and the organisation the Deputy mentioned may be able to apply. However, that would be post budget.

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