Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development how she is supporting communities across the country to develop local strategies in communities that have significant pressures, and if she will provide funding for new community development workers. [10819/24]

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I ask how the Minister is supporting communities across the country to develop local strategies in communities that have significant pressures, and if she will provide funding for new community development workers.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for the question. The new iteration of the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, 2024-2028 has a renewed focus on building capacity in community representative structures, establishing new community groups and social enterprises, and empowering communities to lead out on identifying their own needs, through a new dedicated core area of work called community animation.

Delivered in both rural and urban areas, the supports are provided by community development workers based on needs that are identified at a local level. I have secured increases of €8.3 million for the programme over the last three years, with annual funding for 2024 now totalling €47.4 million. My Department also works closely with local community development committees, LCDCs, which are a key element of the local authorities’ strengthened role in local and community development. LCDCs are responsible for preparing the community elements of the six-year local economic and community plans, LECPs. Community consultation is a key aspect of the community elements of the LECPs, in both the development and implementation to ensure that the specific needs of communities are addressed.

My Department also provides supports to communities to develop their own responses to tackle the challenges they face under a number of funding streams, such as the public participation networks and measures such as the empowering communities programme and the community development programme.

The arrival of Ukrainians and international protection applicants has had a significant impact on demand for services in communities across Ireland, and SICAP workers have been to the forefront of local responses in this context. To assist in the community response, an additional €10 million in SICAP funding was announced in 2023 and again in 2024 to ensure SICAP programme implementers are resourced to continue their work to support new arrivals alongside core SICAP target groups. I am keenly aware of the ever-changing situation and the substantial pressures being placed on community resources and existing engagement workers as a result of these arrivals. My officials continue to engage extensively with SICAP programme implementers to respond to emerging needs.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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All of those measures are welcome and the funding that is coming through is absolutely welcome. However, the Minister of State acknowledges that significant pressures in relation to international protection and also Ukrainians is causing enormous pressure, particularly in working class communities. I will give an example. Many years ago in my community, when I moved out and started getting involved in community work in Dublin 15, we had six community development workers in six of the local community centres. That was the work on the ground in the community centres, with people working away. I do not see that any more. I am not taking away in any shape or form from the brilliant work that is being done in terms of community development. I will give an example of something that really struck me recently. A substantial amount of funding has been put forward. I am not saying there is a disconnect but I am going to say this. Public Wi-Fi in community centres has been funded at a cost of €120,000 and installation of digital information boards at €42,000. This funding is from the community recognition fund that covers, for example, the installation of a lift in a community centre and installation of digital information boards. The list goes on; these are all brilliant and worthy projects but I am struggling to see the connection between working class communities and the funding from that community recognition fund.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Since the Deputy specifically raised the community recognition fund, I will try to address the particular point he made. This was a €50 million announcement from last year. Each local authority was given an allocation based specifically on the number of new arrivals they had. After that a process ensued in each local authority area whereby the local authority was obliged to engage with communities on the ground. Maybe we can question the quality, breadth and depth of that in some cases, but the logic was that the communities themselves would identify resources they needed in their own communities. This is the wider community, as well, I am not just talking about new arrivals. Following on from that, allocations would have been dealt out to the different groups to improve their facilities. The Deputy mentioned some of them. The the whole object was that community recognition fund would benefit the wider community as well.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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As I said, I absolutely acknowledge this. Some of the projects, for example the playground in Fortlawn, are really good. I know that one personally, it is a really good project, the Fortlawn Flower Power group has been instrumental fighting for this for a number of years. It is a really good example of the community recognition fund. I just have a worry and a concern about some of the funding that has been allocated, as to what the connection to some of the communities would be, whether some of the communities would actually even know that the community recognition fund paid for something and that it was part of the supports that were being provided by the Department in terms of the pressures that have been put on communities. We may have to look at that again and see what is the connection between the community of the ground, the people who see it, experience it and who are feeling all those pressures, and some of the allocations to some of the projects or funds. Some of them looked to me like Fingal County Council projects, to be honest.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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We have to trust in the local authorities' decision-making processes as well to some extent, but at the same time we look at how they were done and we can learn from this round for future plans. I would point to a couple of things that we have been doing and that are particularly dedicated and pointed at particularly disadvantaged communities, namely the empowering communities programme that I launched. We have 15 very specific areas that we chose based on the level of deprivation, probably the most deprived 15 areas of the country. We have put additional community workers in there, about two in each case. The results of that programme have been astonishing. It just shows that when you put community workers in, they can make a real difference. We should be able to build that a little bit this year. Going forward I think it is part of the answer to the issue the Deputy raised.