Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

While I hear what the Senator is saying, I am somewhat at a loss as to why he has raised this matter on the Adjournment. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs does not have funding available and does not operate a scheme of funding for the building of community centres. I accept that there may be a need for such a fund, but at present, there is none.

The programme of grants for locally-based community and voluntary organisations, funded by my Department, supports the activities of local voluntary and community groups addressing disadvantage in their community. I stress that the scheme is particularly geared towards disadvantage. The programme has benefited thousands of locally-based community and voluntary organisations throughout the country.

Under the 2005 programme, I provided funding in excess of €5.5 million for over 500 groups across the country. This represented a sizeable increase of some €2 million over the 2004 programme. The organisations funded cover a broad spectrum of local voluntary and community activity but the common thread in all projects is that they aim to address disadvantage in their communities. Details of the groups which received funding under the programme are published on my Department's website at www.pobail.ie. I am sure there are groups in the Senator's constituency that received funding.

The programme includes a funding scheme for small-scale refurbishment of premises, including community halls. Grants of up to €40,000 are available for refurbishment purposes. Priority under the programme is given to disadvantaged communities with a greater priority accorded to self-help initiatives by disadvantaged groups and communities over proposals involving direct service provision.

The programme is advertised widely in the national and regional newspapers on an annual basis. It will be advertised again before the summer, in six to eight weeks' time. However, as I said, funding is very much geared towards disadvantage and refurbishment of existing community centres. No application for funding was received by my Department under the programme from Kenagh community centre. Again, I must point out that the programme does not cover the construction of community centres and there is no funding available or scheme operated by my Department for retrospective funding of such projects.

With regard to Leader funding, I am advised by Longford Community Resources Limited, a Leader company, that funding of €38,092 was made available by it to Kenagh Community Development Association towards the construction costs of a new community facility in 2002. Grant aid of the amount approved was paid on completion of the work in November 2003. No further application has been made to Longford Community Resources Limited relating to the community centre. It is not possible to make Leader funding available retrospectively to meet any shortfall that has arisen.

I hear what Senator Bannon has said but I do not know that I have a solution. I do not know if the centre has any tenants or if any office space in the centre is rented to any Government-funded programmes. I have seen cases where offices were made available for Government-funded programmes and centres then had tenants who paid rent, which was of some financial help. The Senator mentioned the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism. I do not know if the committee has approached that Department this year. How much did the Senator say the county council gave? Was it €8,000 or €100,000?