Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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238. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will agree to a request for a meeting (details supplied) with the National Collective of Community based Women’s Network; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48627/14]

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 €281 million over that period.  It is being implemented on a transitional basis for 2014 with a budget of €47 million 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.

In accordance with the Public Spending Code, legal advice, good practice internationally and in order to ensure the optimum delivery of services to clients, the Programme is subject to a public procurement process, which is currently underway.  Stage one (Expression of Interest) has been completed. Stage two (Invitation to Tender), got underway on 20 October 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.

The public procurement process is a competitive process that is open to Local Development Companies, other not-for-profit community groups, commercial firms and national organisations that can provide the services to be tendered for to deliver the new Programme. In Stage one, joint applications were encouraged and organisations of varying sizes (for example smaller organisations working in consortia with larger organisations) were invited to submit joint applications. That said, I understand that some small groups, such as the groups under the remit of the NCCWN, faced a number of challenges in competing in the Stage one process. The results of Stage one were released on 24 September and I can confirm that none of the NCCWN groups expressed an interest either as lead applicants or as part of a consortium.

I am now considering the implications of that for NCCWN and my Department is liaising with other relevant Departments to find a workable solution. I can confirm that interim LCDP funding, based on a small budgetary reduction in the order of 6.5%, on 2014 levels, will be provided to NCCWN up to end March 2015. While a meeting would be beneficial at this stage, I will not be in a position to facilitate a meeting until January 2015.