Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht an mhéid a dúirt sé mar gheall ar an Roinn.

My Department provides guidance to the local community development committees on the eligibility criteria. The guidelines require projects to be in keeping with the ethos of the programme. The Government is very much aware of the challenges facing community and voluntary groups and we are very much committed to supporting them. Both the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and I will work with community development committees to ensure that they qualify but also that we support them because, as I said, they are at the core of what we do in our towns and villages and in our rural and urban areas and they play a critical role. We would be lost without them as a country.

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