Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who sends her apologies that she cannot be here. We all know the valuable role community centres in many towns, villages and urban areas. It is very important to recognise that. With this in mind, the Minister put in place an integrated programme of supports for the establishment and development of community centres across schemes such as CLÁR, LEADER, the community support fund, the town and village renewal scheme and the community centres investment fund the Senator is referring to. More than €45 million has been committed to this important refurbishment work that has been ongoing since 2022, with 850 projects being assisted over that period.

This year the focus of the fund moved to new builds, as the Senator mentioned. The Minister wants to assist community groups striving to build their own community centre to service local needs. The €20 million fund is intended, as the Senator said, to support communities with shovel-ready projects. This is the important thing. The fund has grant funding from €1 million to a maximum of €6 million. These are very significant projects and are envisaged as serving the needs of their communities for years to come. The application deadline was 3 July.

Due to the scale of the funding it is important to recognise that for the purposes of compliance with public financial procedures, the lead party to an application must be a State-funded body such as a local authority, local development company or other State agency.However, it was also open to other community organisations, voluntary groups and civil society bodies to partner with a State body in the submission of applications under the fund. This will help to ensure that community groups are at the centre and to the fore of such developments.

Following the 3 July deadline for applications, I have been advised that 22 applications have been submitted to the 2023 community centre investment fund and they add up to a total of €59 million. That is the number of applications that have been received. As the Senator said clearly, they are being looked at closely in the Department.

Newcastle Community Centre made a request of €4.34 million, which was submitted by Galway City Council. Áras lae, Maigh Cuilinn, submitted by Údarás na Gaeltachta, made a €6 million funding request. Glinsk community development group, submitted by Galway County Council, has sought €2.85 million in funding. The Minister and her colleagues look forward to the commencement of work on these successful projects as soon as the final decision is made with regard to which of these are most suitable.

As stated, the Minister is aware that she expects to be in a position to complete the assessment of the applications in the first quarter of 2024. As we already mentioned, these will be shovel-ready projects. Hopefully, construction will commence and be well advanced during the course of the year in respect of the successful applicants. As I mentioned, however, those decisions will not be made until early 2024.