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

A couple of points occur to me. If I do not get to them all, I will do it in follow-up. There is a responsibility, if the Deputy is talking specifically about community centres, on the local authority which needs to engage with its local community. I know there is a good community department in Cork and I know a few of the people in there who would be committed. I also know the area of Ballyvolane and I am familiar with the situation the Deputy describes. This is one of the reasons we developed the community centre investment fund as well. That is a big fund with large capital allocations, but it requires the local authority to engage, not just with what is happening on the ground but with us as well. The most accessible support we have, particularly in the Deputy's area, is the SICAP, and in terms of building community capacity, the workers in Cork City Partnership, which I am sure the Deputy is familiar with, would probably be his first go-to point of contact.

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