Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My Department’s Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) is the largest social inclusion intervention of its kind in the State. The current Programme officially ended at the end of 2013 having operated for four years with funding of €281m over that period.  It is being implemented on a transitional basis for 2014 with a budget of €47m pending the roll out of the new Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) in April 2015.

The SICAP is one of my key priorities and its budget for next year will be decided in the 2015 Estimates process. The Programme’s target groups are:

-Children and Families from Disadvantaged Areas

- Lone Parents

- New Communities (including Refugees/Asylum Seekers)

- People living in Disadvantaged Communities

- People with Disabilities

- Roma

- The Unemployed (including those not on the Live Register)

- Travellers

- Young Unemployed People from Disadvantaged areas.

The SICAP aim is to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality through local, regional and national engagement and collaboration. I am confident that supports for the most disadvantaged in our society, such as Travellers, will continue under SICAP.

The LCDP currently provides funding of some €1.17m to 14 Traveller specific projects through the country. My Department also supports a number of Traveller projects under the Scheme to Support National Organisations (SSNO). This funding scheme, which supports national organisations in the community and voluntary sector, aims to provide multi-annual funding to national organisations towards core costs associated with the provision of services. A new round of funding was advertised for applications earlier this year. Following Pobal’s assessment of applications on behalf of my Department, 55 applications for funding were approved under the scheme for the two-year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016. A number of Traveller community groups were successful in applying for funding under the scheme, including Pavee Point, the National Traveller Women’s Forum and the Irish Traveller Movement.

In accordance with the Public Spending Code, legal advice, good practice internationally and in order to ensure the optimum delivery of the services to clients, SICAP is subject to a public procurement process, which is currently underway.  Stage one (Expression of Interest) has been completed. Stage two (Invitation to Tender), will get underway later this month and will involve the successful applicants from Stage one being invited to apply to one or more Local Community Development Committees, in Local Authority areas, to deliver the programme. Contracts for SICAP will be determined following the outcome of the procurement process.