Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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580. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of funding for a childcare facility (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51097/19]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm that an application was submitted by the organization in question under the Small Capital Grants Scheme for Social Enterprises which I launched in September.

The scheme, which is administered by the Local Development Companies on behalf of my Department, will provide grants of between €2,000 and €15,000 for equipment, repairs or refurbishments to enable social enterprises to improve their service delivery.

My Department received an overwhelming response to this call for funding, which was heavily over-subscribed.

On 9 December, I announced the allocation of €1 million in funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund to 124 social enterprise projects across the country under the scheme. The organization referred to by the Deputy was not successful in securing funding on this occasion.

Given the level of the budget available for this pilot scheme, it was not possible to fund more applicants this year, but I will review the possibility of making further allocations in 2020.

A full list of the successful social enterprises, including the grant amounts awarded under the Small Capital Grants Scheme, is available at www.gov.ie/en/collection/a99ff0-small-capital-grants-for-social-enterprises/.