Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach's office for choosing this Commencement matter and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, to the Chamber. As everybody knows, community centres are important places for gatherings, sport, events, social occasions, fetes, sales of work and drama, to name but a few of the uses they have up and down the country. They range in size, depending on the size of a community. There are small community centres that are a gathering place for active retirement or old folks' groups in the morning and for children after school, and so on. There is a range of sizes, going all the way up to the big, spacious halls required for basketball and the likes.

In the past, particularly in rural areas, a community might have come together, in a kind of meitheal, gone through planning permission processes and started building a community centre over a number of years. As funds allowed, they completed a little more work and did work themselves through direct labour. In this day and age, that is more difficult with health and safety regulations, insurance issues, improved building standards, the Safe Pass required for building and the likes. There are a range of schemes across Government Departments for community projects, including the Leader programme in county areas, the CLÁR programme in certain parts of the country, the RAPID programme in certain areas of our cities and larger towns, sports capital grants, town and village schemes, the urban regeneration development fund, the rural regeneration development fund, local authority grants, An Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meáin grants and Pobal grants.

However, for certain communities, like my own in Moycullen in County Galway, or Newcastle in Galway city, there is no one fund, of scale, that a community or, indeed, a local authority can apply to for a project that may cost in the order of €3 million to €5 million. For smaller projects, the Leader programme can step in to provide supports and one can build smaller centres. However, projects on the scale of €3 million to €5 million are of an insurmountable cost for a community to get involved with. It is vital that we develop a fund similar to the sports capital fund. It would make sense if local authorities could apply to such a fund for large-scale projects. The funding could be shared with the local authorities, or with the community providing a site or funds and so on, but it is absolutely vital.

There is a review of the national development plan, NDP, going on at the moment. I ask that the Minister of State brings this matter to the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Heather Humphreys. I will speak to her regarding it as well. I have spoken to the Tánaiste about the matter and raised it with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, during statements on the NDP last week.I suggest that we develop a fund similar to the sports capital fund. Communities would engage with their local authorities, which would then make applications. The fund would be used for refurbishments and modernisations, as well as new builds, of community centres up and down the country. Since there are fewer opportunities to find funding for large urban areas that are facing rapid development, I ask that this suggestion be considered. Will the Minister of State engage with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, on whether this can be developed as part of the NDP review?