Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

577. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will take into account the importance of the role of the arts in rural communities when allocating future Leader and-or SICAP funding to community development organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4833/15]

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department provides supports and funding to communities, urban and rural, which enables them to identify and address issues and priorities for action in their own areas. In this regard, communities regularly identify the arts and creative industries as priorities for action in their areas and indeed many projects of this nature have been funded under the current Leader elements of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2014 and the Local Community Development Programme.

In relation to the role of the arts in rural communities and future funding of arts projects, the forthcoming LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 will provide €250 million in resources to support the sustainable development of rural communities across the country. This funding will be delivered using a community led local development approach based on local development strategies designed and implemented by groups of people from a given sub-regional area or a Local Action Group (LAG). It should be noted that all decisions related to funding specific projects, including those that relate to the arts and creative industries, will be a matter for the Local Action Group and will be made based on the needs and priorities that the Local Action Group have identified in their local development strategy. My Department will have no role to play in the selection of individual projects at local level under this programme.

The Local Community Development Programme (LCDP) is the largest social inclusion intervention, of its kind, in the state.  It is a key tool of Government.  The successor programme to the LCDP, the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) to be rolled out in April next, will build on the LCDP aims and objectives , including supporting and resourcing disadvantaged communities and marginalised target groups through life-long learning opportunities and interventions which may involve the arts.

As part of the programme of reform of local government, Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) were established in all local authorities and these Committees, comprising public-private socio-economic interests, will have responsibility for local and community development programmes on an area basis, including the role of co-ordinating, managing and overseeing the implementation of SICAP. They will develop, co-ordinate and implement a more coherent and integrated approach to local and community development than heretofore, with the aim of reducing duplication and overlap and optimising the use of available resources for the benefit of citizens and communities.