Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 286: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on the proposal for a new local and community development programme structure in Waterford city (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11474/10]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, the aim of the new Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) is to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities, while enabling groups to objectively demonstrate the positive impacts they are securing for local communities.

It is intended that the LCDP will be implemented nationally on an integrated basis through new structural arrangements involving the 53 Partnership Companies and the 164 Community Development Projects. Local development companies and projects will be able to identify and meet the needs of communities and particular attention will be given to RAPID areas and to those areas where a CDP is no longer operating. An implementation strategy, involving the stakeholders, is underway for LCDP roll-out over the course of 2010. My Department has set out a model for integrated service delivery and structures at a local level which would involve, among other things, the re-constitution of the voluntary boards of CDPs from the end of 2010.

My Department has taken care in the design of the implementation process for the LCDP and ample time has been allowed to ensure that the objective of integrated service delivery can be achieved. However, it has been conveyed to CDPs and local development companies that if better models are proposed by them, these will be accepted, as long as they achieve integrated and cost effective service delivery.

In the view of my Department, the model proposed for Waterford City does not meet the objective of integrated service delivery and structures, and, in fact, would create additional structures. Moreover, it is considered that the model proposed does not have the potential either to achieve the kind of efficiencies that are required in light of budgetary provisions or to reduce the heavy administrative and legal burdens currently required of CDP board members.