Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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298. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the progress with regard to the core principles for the confidence and supply arrangement regarding the strengthening of the social inclusion and community activation programme and in developing the new community development schemes for rural areas. [30769/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is the largest social inclusion programme in the State and is a key priority for Government. The current SICAP programme will come to an end on 31 December 2017, and the successor programme (SICAP 2) is due to roll out in January 2018.

My Department has undertaken a number of measures which will assist in strengthening the next iteration of the Programme.  In early 2017, a targeted consultation process was initiated involving national and regional sessions, surveys and a number of focus groups in which feedback was sought from the key stakeholders involved in SICAP.  The consultation process offered a platform to consider how the programme could be refined in order to strengthen it from 2018, and many of the issues raised during this process will be addressed in the new Programme. Funding for the Programme will be finalised in the context of the annual Estimates process.

The Programme for Partnership Government also gave a commitment to develop a new Community Development Scheme.  In that regard, a Communities Facilities Scheme, which is targeted at disadvantaged urban and rural areas, but not exclusively so, was launched on 10 March 2017.  An allocation of €2 million has been made available for the Scheme in Budget 2017.  The funding will relate to capital projects only and is intended to help grass roots community projects get underway or take the next step towards completion.  The Scheme will fund projects that seek to enhance communities, address disadvantage and improve social cohesion at a local level.  Arrangements are currently being made in my Department to issue these funds to the Local Authorities, who will administer this Scheme on behalf of the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs), in each area.

The Community Facilities Scheme will operate in a complementary manner with other schemes or programmes being operated in communities, including in particular, the SICAP, RAPID and CLÁR Programmes, adding value to those and other front-line schemes. It will also seek to address some of the difficulties local community groups face in terms of accessing very often small scale levels of funding to match their own fundraising efforts, in order to get community projects off the ground.