Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Within my Department, the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, is the primary social inclusion programme. It aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality in Ireland through supporting communities and individuals using community development approaches, engagement and collaboration. I thank and commend our SICAP teams all over the country for their work. Although addressing child poverty is not an explicit target of SICAP, services and supports are typically delivered to children experiencing poverty and disadvantage through other general target groups, including the heads of one-parent families, people experiencing educational disadvantage and those living in jobless households or households where the primary income source is low-paid or precarious. SICAP also features youth as a thematic focus area. It supports development of youth groups, arts and crafts, games, sports, etc. and, in particular, preventative early school leaving initiatives, youth-focused active citizenship and leadership programmes and mental health and well-being programmes. Targeted supports are provided in many SICAP areas for particular groups of young people in specific areas. Collaboration is a critical success factor for services delivered through SICAP.

Local development companies that support the delivery of SICAP locally engage with agencies such as Tusla, children and young people's services committees and school completion officers to ensure that relevant and specifically targeted supports are provided for specific children in each community. In that context, services delivered through SICAP contribute directly and indirectly to addressing the priority areas identified by the Deputy, including income supports and joblessness, early learning and childcare, reducing the cost of education, addressing family homelessness and, in particular, integrating our public health and family support services. We will continue to support SICAP. We also provide support through the scheme to many national organisations providing specific local responses depending on the circumstances of a local area.

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