Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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1173. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when it is expected community centres will open; the position with regard to a centre (details supplied); if funding supports will be provided to community centres to assist them to reopen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6333/20]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The government has published a Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business to ease the COVID-19 restrictions and reopen Ireland’s economy and society in a phased manner.

There is no set date for the reopening of all community centres in Ireland. The opening for each community centre will depend on the activities and facilities available there.The roadmap provides more detail and is available on the following link:

The community centre referenced is closed to the public at present due to Covid-19.  The centre manager attends the centre each day for a reduced period of time (mainly for admin work) and is also the contact for the Community Call helpline. 

I am aware that this centre has specific exceptional funding requirements for fire safety works.  My Department provided a funding contribution of €20,000 matched by Fingal Local Authority towards the costs of these works.  This essential fire compartmentation work is due to begin after 18th May while the centre remains closed in compliance with Government guidelines.

More generally, community facilities are funded from a range of different sources across different Government Departments and agencies.  My Department supports the centre referenced under its Community Services Programme (CSP) with €184,264 allocated to it for 2020. In addition, my Department also recently developed a 2020 Support Fund which provides an additional once off payment to CSP organisations to cover a 12 week period from 26th March 2020, ensuring that they can pay their full-time CSP supported employees a maximum of €350 net per week, with a proportionate amount for part-time CSP supported employees.  The centre was paid an additional €5,293 under the Fund.

In addition, my Department recently announced a package of supports for Community and Voluntary Organisations, Charities and Social Enterprises. The funding package is being made available through the support of the Dormant Accounts Fund, which is specifically set aside to support initiatives which will benefit the most disadvantaged groups in society. It includes a Stability Fund of €35 million and a Philanthropy Fund of €5 million.

Details of the Stability Fund are available at

Further details on the philanthropy fund are available at . Some community centres may be eligible for this funding, depending on the activities and facilities that they make available.