Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House.

Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Seanad today and wish him well in his Department.

Today, I seek to highlight the need for the Attic House CLG to be successful under the 2021 community development pilot programme. It has a proven track record of community service in Longford and is ideally located to pilot a community development initiative. This superb facility has a state-of-the-art campus that is ideally located at the heart of the most marginalised communities in the county. The existing project has been supported by many agencies to address the needs of young people in the community. Now it is time further develop on what has been built and offer Attic House as a community development for Longford town. Why Longford town? The statistics show that we have a very diverse population that is experiencing considerable disadvantage and there are many who would benefit from the project. The Pobal HP deprivation index of 2016 shows that within walking distance of the town centre two-thirds of the people's living areas were classified as being between disadvantaged and extremely disadvantaged, higher than the national average of non-white residents and four times the national average of Traveller families. The Attic House has developed an integration programme to ensure inclusivity of the migrant community. Many of these communities live independently of each other and that can lead to a divided population, which, in turn, can lead to conflict. The Attic House has very successfully engaged with a high number of these communities.

The Attic House started as a youth café in 2006. Following consultation that identified a lack of services and supports, for youth and family support services, the need for a dedicated centre was raised. In 2015, the Attic House was established as a volunteer-managed youth and community project, which has now become a central hub in Longford for youth and other agencies to work together to provide opportunities for all in the county. Funding to develop the facility was sourced from the LEADER programme, Longford County Council and the local enterprise office but more than €500,000 was raised locally to develop the project.This gives the community of Longford a sense of ownership and pride in its achievements so far. It is governed by a management committee of members drawn from a broad section of the community who bring a wide set of skills to the governance of the facility and to the project itself. Stakeholders who work with and provide services include Foróige, Tusla, Longford direct provision, Mens Sheds Ireland, Longford Sports Partnership, Templemichael College, the EDI Centre Longford and Templemichael Parish Resources. The list of partner agencies include Backstage Theatre, the Traveller health project, the local Youthreach service, Longford County Council, County Longford Youth Service, the Lus na Gréine and Bridgeways family resource centres, Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board, the HSE, the local public participation network, Longford Africans Network, the Polish community network, the volunteer centre and all of the local schools.

This is a community development programme that has, thus far, been financed and run by volunteers. What could it achieve if given the resources to allow it to expand with a full-time project manager? Its unique position, with an existing state-of-the-art facility, means that any project investment will result in considerable value for money. This organisation has experience, is embedded in the community and can hit the ground running, allowing it to reach more people in our community. I ask the Minister of State to prioritise Attic House for funding under the current programme.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter. He will be aware that this Government is committed to supporting and enabling a strong community sector. It is my role to ensure that is delivered. In addition to the commitments in Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities: A Five-Year Strategy to Support the Community and Voluntary Sector in Ireland 2019-2024, published in August 2019, there is a very specific commitment in the programme for Government to introduce, on a phased basis, a number of projects similar in approach to community development projects. In response to this commitment, my Department announced the introduction of a pilot community development programme which will consist of up to eight projects promoting an autonomous approach to community work with marginalised communities. Initial funding of €1 million was secured for 2021 and it is expected that the programme will continue for three years.

The overall aim of the community development pilot programme is to trial community development initiatives that address poverty, social exclusion and inequality and promote human rights. The pilot programme will seek to develop community development responses to a range of social, economic and environmental concerns. In line with community development principles, the idea is to facilitate an empowering, collaborative approach to building relationships and to undertake co-operative initiatives between marginalised groups, mainstream services and decision-making bodies. Overall, we want to examine the benefits of an autonomous approach to community development with regard to existing, new and emerging issues. We want to ensure that those on the very front line of grassroots community work are empowered to identify and deliver in a proactive and reactive way, based on local knowledge of needs. The focus is on community development organisations working, or seeking to work, at local level to address issues in areas such as racism, domestic or sexual violence, migration, gender, people living in direct provision or seeking international protection, climate action and just transition.

The programme opened for applications in March and, due to the large number of high-quality submissions received, my Department is undertaking a two-stage assessment process to examine the applications against the eligibility criteria set out. It is expected that successful applicants will be notified at the end of May. This is a change from the original target of the end of April indicated in the initial information and guidance. All applicants have been advised of the revised timeline.

As the Senator will appreciate, it would not be appropriate for me to comment at this stage on any individual application that may be under consideration as part of this process, including any application from the Attic House CLG. I am grateful to every organisation that has submitted an application and I am very encouraged by the overall level of interest that has been generated. I am also aware of the important work that the Attic House CLG does for young people in Longford and I wish it every success in its ongoing activities.

In total, 123 applications were received in my Department, representing local communities and local development organisations working at local level to address issues facing marginalised groups. Some areas of work covered in applications include: work with Travellers, Roma and migrants; projects working to address domestic violence; projects working with marginalised women and children; addiction supports and mental health projects; and projects relating to gender issues, climate action, just transition and many other areas. Applications were submitted by organisations across all 26 counties.

I would also like to highlight that, in late 2020, I announced funding of €254,000 to support the work of the All Ireland Endorsement Body for Community Work Education and Training, AIEB, between 2020 and 2022 in order to support the future growth and development of community work in Ireland.At the time of the funding announcement, I reiterated my desire to see further growth in grassroots community work, and I do so again today.

Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and I appreciate he cannot make further comment. I acknowledge his comment about being aware of the strong work involved. It is an organisation I have been involved in for over ten years. When he is looking for a pilot programme, he should know this is already being done on a voluntary capacity, and I do not think there are too many programmes anywhere in the country where that can be said. As a town, we do not have a family resource centre and we have been unsuccessful with applications for one. It took the commitment of a voluntary management committee to raise €500,000 to purchase a property, develop it and run these programmes in our county town on a voluntary basis. I appeal to the Minister of State to look at this urgently. It needs support and our county town needs support. As I said, it is an existing facility. If we are looking for value for money as well as experience, we will not get as much anywhere else in the country. I thank the Minister of State for his time.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for laying out the details of what the community has done in getting the project running. It is always very impressive when volunteer work at that level brings something to life.

I want to add a couple of points on the applications. They will be assessed and scored in accordance with the marking scheme set out, and that reflects the pilot programme aim, objectives and eligibility criteria. Consideration will be given to a number of other issues, such as geographic and regional spread and the range of issues covered. Successful projects will be selected by a panel selected for that purpose, chaired by my Department and comprising representatives from Pobal and nominees from Community Work Ireland and the Irish Local Development Network.

It is important to say we received a very large number of valid applications and a very large number of very worthy proposals. If a project proposal is not selected, we will explore ways that the need identified might be addressed via some of our other funding programmes. I will consider the overall volume of applications and the strong quality of the applications to pursue growth in the Department’s programmes to address the needs identified by people and organisations at grassroots level.

For the applications that have come in, we will consider he value within them in the broader scheme of things going forward. I genuinely thank people for the work that has gone into them.