Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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96. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his views on the merits of providing multi-annual funding for men’s and women’s sheds to allow them to plan longer term projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54869/25]

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Tá ceist agam ná faoi na men's sheds agus an t-airgead atá curtha ar fáil dóibh. I ask about the value of multi-annual funding for men's sheds to give them certainty with regard to what they can do year on year, rather than depending on budget-to-budget and year-to-year decisions on funding. It would give them much greater certainty regarding what they can and cannot do and I would be grateful if the Minister could address that issue.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. The emergence of men’s sheds and women's sheds has been an enormously positive development for communities across Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are fully committed to supporting men's and women's sheds in the valuable work they do.

My Department provides funding to men's and women’s sheds under various supports, including the local enhancement programme, the social inclusion and community activation programme and LEADER. Men’s and women's sheds can apply individually for all of these schemes. In addition to these schemes, my Department has channelled funding through the Irish Men’s Sheds Association, IMSA, to distribute directly to men’s sheds. I was pleased to announce a financial package with the IMSA this year, which will enable it to distribute up to €1 million in support to men's sheds across the country. It should also be noted that my Department provides multi-annual funding to the IMSA through the scheme to support national organisations.

We continue to engage with the men's sheds regarding the distribution of that money. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, and I are focused on ensuring that gets to the sheds. While I understand the desire for multi-annual funding, it would not be possible for my Department to provide multiannual funding to individual men's and women's sheds on an ongoing basis for a variety of reasons.

My Department works within the resources it has to provide the best supports possible at this time. Women's sheds do not currently operate under a national organisation. My Department is unable to provide funding similar to that provided to men's sheds. However, my Department and the Department of Health are working with the women's sheds of Ireland to support their efforts to form a national body, which would thereby allow the Minister of State and me to facilitate access for women's sheds to similar funding to the IMSA.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the work being done and the funding that has been made available. I agree with what the Minister said about the value of men's sheds and women's sheds. I do not really understand why we cannot put a multi-annual framework in place for funding for them. It would give them huge assistance in delivering and providing the services they do, which, we can all agree, are really positive for communities all over this country. I accept what the Minister has said about the lack of a national organisation or association for women's sheds. However, could the same level of money given to the Irish Men's Sheds Association not be provided over a series of years in the way we do in so many other areas from budget to budget, rather than asking them to depend from year to year on what they might be able to rely on? They can do so much more if they have certainty about what funding is available to them. Will the Minister outline the reasons that cannot be done?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Through the scheme to support national organisations, we do support the IMSA in its infrastructure and scaffolding so that it can distribute the funding. I have commitments and responsibilities in terms of the expenditure of money. I have to be sure the money is spent properly and appropriately and so, when we engage in multi-annual funding with any organisation, it is important for us to ensure it gets to the people we want it to get to. The Minister of State and I have spent a huge amount of our time engaging with this funding to ensure it gets to individual sheds across the country. I have confidence we will be able to do that. As recently as last week, there was a meeting with the facilitator around the women's sheds association to put in place a national framework that will allow us to fund directly. We have continued the funding to the men's sheds. We also have similar funding in place for agriculture shows across the country, which we fund through the Irish Shows Association. When we are making the investment, it is far more efficient to make it through a national representative organisation, which, in turn, can distribute it to local groups. The Irish Shows Association is the model I would recommend to any group.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate what the Minister has said. I understand the importance of making sure the money is spent correctly and appropriately. Nobody has any difficulty with that. I also appreciate what he said about the value of the associations and the value of an association that can act as an umbrella body. My suggestion is that where we provide multi-annual funding for various organisations in other areas of the budget, is it not open to us to make that multi-annual funding available to a particular association so that they might have some certainty for the programmes they offer, recognising the value of men's sheds to particular communities and what they do for people throughout this country, in every constituency represented in this House? Is there any path to provide that certainty, whether through multi-annual funding or through the association? Is there no pathway to give them certainty on what might be available to run the programmes they run?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Certainty is in what we have given to date. Funding has been provided over a number of years. There is certainty through the scheme to support national organisations and that gives the backup for the infrastructure. We work very closely with the IMSA. It has just finished a consultation process with local men's sheds as to what it will be looking for grant-wise. We want that process to be completed so that we will be in a position to fund them to get the money out to the local sheds. We are also putting money into women's sheds to ensure they set up a national organisation in a similar way. The example I gave, the Irish Shows Association, demonstrates it can be done efficiently on an annual basis. At this point I do not see any need for multi-annual funding. Certainty of funding is shown every year. The Irish Shows Association is a model that should be pursued.