Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will provide an update on the assessment of applications under the community services programme, administered by Pobal, to include the numbers of applications received, the numbers that were successful and whether there will be additional funding provided this year, given the volume of applications received; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20864/24]

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister provide an update on the assessment of applications under the community services programme administered by Pobal? Will she provide the number of applications received, the numbers that were successful, those still being assessed and any plans for providing additional funding before the end of this year?

I do not think it will come as any surprise that my follow-up question will be about Muirhevnamore community centre, and I may also have a question about Blackrock community centre.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Department's community services programme supports more than 430 community-based organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model with an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent position being supported and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager. In March 2023, funding of €1 million was made available for a call for proposals in respect of specific CSP services, resulting in 14 new applicants being approved entry to the CSP in December 2023, supporting 13 manager positions and 23 full-time equivalent positions, valued at approximately €1 million. There are a number of organisations in the pipeline for support. However, this is subject to available resources. An application window for funding additional staff posts for existing CSP-funded organisations was opened on 1 September 2023 with a closing date of the end of September 2023. Pobal, which manages and administers the programme on behalf of the Department, received 137 applications from CSP-supported organisations under this call for applications. Pobal has undertaken an assessment of all applications received, with its recommendations submitted to the Department. Applications are under review, but due to the volume of applications received, it is expected notifications will issue to organisations in the coming weeks.

The Department is acutely aware of the pressures on the organisations supported under the community services programme in recent years. Supports provided under the CSP are considered in light of available budgets and the Department has had to consider a number of financial pressures over the past year under the CSP funding. These are the €1 million open call and an additional staff funding call launched in 2023, implications of the increase to the minimum wage in 2024 and upcoming costs that will have to be factored in relating to the pension auto-enrolment scheme, which is successfully moving through the Dáil at the moment.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister's answer. We are dealing with a huge number of applications because there is a huge amount of need. That goes without saying. Everybody across this campus could probably speak to the work done by many community organisations and its absolute necessity for the community. I ask that whatever can be done is done to ensure we can deliver as much as possible. We know the financial pressures for businesses and community organisations from the necessary added costs from wages. We also know about the added costs from the cost of living, energy costs, and so on. They obviously also impact on them. However, there is currently an application with the Department that relates to Muirhevnamore community centre. I can speak to the work that is done in terms of youth groups, youth training, addiction supports, disability supports, the HSE and everybody else who operates out of there. It has expanded in the past while and provides a fabulous service to the local community.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I acknowledge the Deputy's ongoing advocacy for Muirhevnamore community centre. He raises it with me regularly. We supply funding for it to support a manager and three full-time equivalents, so that is an annual contribution of €114,000 supplied to Muirhevnamore community centre. I again summarise that, over the past four years, there has been a list of financial pressures on the CSP that really started with Covid. Many CSP organisations depend on the income they generate themselves. That varies a lot depending on where organisations are situated. We had a job to make sure CSP organisations survived through Covid. Many of them were not able to generate their own income, so we developed a support fund to guide the 400-plus organisations through that challenge. We have a new model, which gives CSP organisations a graded contribution. I think Muirhevnamore is one of those getting a higher contribution under the new model because it is in an area of higher need with less ability to generate its own income.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I ask that the huge work done by the like of Muirhevnamore community centre on the basis of being in an area of disadvantage be taken into account. We all know that, with community centres, you can be between timelines when it comes to anchor tenancies and so on. I know some of that is happening at the moment which has probably added pressures. I also know work is being done with SOLAS and the LMETB to rectify these and provide an added service. It is a service where there is a lot more work and throughput on the basis of the shared space extension, which was named after a friend of mine, Kevin Mulgrew, due to the huge work he carried out in that community and the wider area of Dundalk.

I also previously asked the Minister of State about Blackrock community centre and that his Department engage with it. It previously failed on the basis of displacement, but it said the sort of jobs it was looking at could not be dealt with by Tús and CE. While it might not be in the same sort of area as Muirhevnamore, it provides a huge service and we should look at facilitating it.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I acknowledge and take the opportunity to thank all of those involved in CSP organisations. The past couple of years have been particularly challenging, and they have all stepped up to the plate. If the Deputy sends me more detail on the Blackrock situation, we can look into it. I do not know if appeal options were exhausted.

To outline what we have been doing in terms of boosting CSP funding in recent years, we put out the new call and kept things going during Covid. That also involved significant investment. The new model also cost us a little more. The minimum wage rise of €1.40 in last year's budget was also something we had to factor in for this year's budget. At the moment we are also looking at additional staff applications. Looking forward to budget 2025, we will also have to factor in some additional costs for organisations, which will come with the benefit of auto enrolment. With all of that in the mix we will certainly do our best for the organisations that are working hard.