Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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307. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if additional funding will be made available through the Covid-19 town and village renewal accelerated measures grant scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26123/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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This year’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme has been tailored to assist our rural towns and villages to respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

The scheme includes an Accelerated Measure which enables towns and villages to introduce initiatives immediately to support increased footfall and enable people to shop and socialise safely in accordance with public health guidelines.

The scheme also includes the Standard Measure which places a focus this year on the recovery of towns and villages from the impact of COVID-19 in the medium-term.

When the 2020 Town and Village Renewal Scheme was launched in May, it had a budget of €15 million, including an indicative allocation of €5 million for the Accelerated Measure.

The Government’s July Stimulus Package provided an additional €10 million in funding to the Town and Village Renewal scheme, allowing the allocation for the Accelerated Measure to be doubled.This extra funding for the Measure has allowed my Department to:

- increase the number of funding rounds from two to three;

- increase the number of applications that can be submitted by the Local Authorities; and

- as an exceptional measure, provide funding under the Accelerated Measure for larger towns with a population above 10,000 people. This is in recognition of the importance of larger towns in supporting the economic and social fabric of surrounding rural communities.

Successful projects under Round 1 and Round 2 of the Accelerated Measure have recently been announced, with a total of €6.1 million being approved for 226 projects.

Applications under Round 3 and from Large Towns are currently being assessed by my officials and further announcements will be made when the process is complete.

Successful applications under the Standard Measure, which will place a focus on the next stage of recovery, will be announced at a later stage.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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308. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding an organisation (details supplied) can apply for to assist it to remain open in view of the effect of Covid-19 on its organisation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26150/20]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Departments Community Services Programme, or CSP, supports community organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model with funding provided as a contribution to the cost of an agreed number of full-time equivalent positions (FTEs) (€19,033 per annum) and a manager (€32,000 per annum), where warranted. The organisation in question has been allocated funding of €70,066 in 2020, towards the cost of one manager and two FTEs. My Department has also put in place a CSP Support Fund which provided additional funding to many of the CSP supported organisations including the organisation in question which was successful in receiving additional funding of €1,038 through the Support Fund.

In addition the Community and Voluntary Sector Covid-19 Stability Fund provided up to €35 million from the Dormant Accounts Fund to organisations in the Community and Voluntary Sector and Social Enterprises. The Fund was intended to provide a targeted, once-off, cash injection for organisations and groups currently delivering critical front-line services to the most at need in our society and in danger of imminent closure due to lost fund-raised or traded income as a direct result of restrictions to counter the spread of COVID-19. To date, three tranches of successful applications have been announced, allocating funding of over €25m to 489 organisations. This funding is now supporting the delivery of many critical front line services in every part of the country.

Regrettably, some organisations were unsuccessful in securing funding for a number of reasons. I understand that some organisations may be disappointed with the outcome, or may have additional or updated information they may wish to have reviewed. For that reason, there is a Stability Scheme Appeals Process, the details of which each unsuccessful applicant has been made aware of. I understand that the organisation in question is currently engaged with the appeals process and I expect that a final decision will be made shortly.

In addition, the 2020 Community Enhancement Programme was launched in June, with funding of €2m provided towards small capital grants to community organisations. Separately, under the July stimulus package my Department launched a €5m fund for repairs or upgrades to community centres and community buildings. Details are available on the following link.

www.gov.ie/en/press-release/2af76-minister-joe-obrien-announces-details-of-5m-funding-for-community-centres-community-facilities/.