Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the special supports he has put in place to assist urban disadvantaged communities overcome the challenges they face; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51863/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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My Department has a range of measures in place to assist disadvantaged urban communities. The Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) is one of my Department’s main social inclusion programmes. The objective of the LCDP is to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government, and its agencies, and people in disadvantaged communities. It is a key tool of Government in providing supports for the ‘harder to reach’ in the most disadvantaged areas and communities, both urban and rural.

The current LCDP Programme comes to an end at the end of 2013. The revised Programme will see a renewed emphasis on targeting the harder to reach individuals and communities. The 2014 LCDP allocation is €47.7 million. In allocating resources, I was particularly conscious of the need to support funding levels for the LCDP and to make the maximum contribution to job creation and economic recovery. The funding provided in 2014 will be invested to increase access to formal and informal educational activities and resources, and to increase people’s work readiness and employment prospects. For example, some 14,000 people who are distanced from the labour market will receive direct one-to-one labour market training and supports through the Programme in 2014.

The RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development) programme covers urban areas designated as disadvantaged by reference to a range of socio-economic criteria including:

- the levels of early school leaving;

- the proportion of one parent households;

- the unemployment rate;

- the proportion of social housing; and

- the age dependency rate.

The programme has made substantial progress in identifying the needs of disadvantaged communities and in bringing forward appropriate local projects in response to those needs. Enhanced alignment between local government and local development is intended to improve the targeting of such local development activity and will provide an opportunity for a stronger, collaborative, focus to be put on support for RAPID areas.

The National Regeneration Programme targets the country’s most disadvantaged communities, those defined by the most extreme social exclusion, unemployment and anti-social behaviour. My Department currently supports an ambitious programme of regeneration projects which seek s to address the causes of disadvantage in these estates through a holistic programme of physical, social and economic regeneration.

The National Regeneration Programme is a priority from a social policy perspective and also in terms of the job creation and economic renewal that are delivered as part of any regeneration programme. The value placed on the national regeneration programme is explicitly recognised in the Programme for Government and it is my objective to ensure that this important programme continues to be supported.

An allocation of €80 million was made to support the regeneration programmes under the National Regeneration Programme in 2013 in the following areas: Limerick City, Ballymun, Dublin City, Cork City, Dundalk, Sligo and Tralee.