Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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697. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which her Department has focused on specific areas of deprivation in urban or rural community sectors; the extent to which she has been in a position to offer assistance in one way or another to date in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43510/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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A vital part of the Department for Rural and Community Development's mission is to support the creation of vibrant and sustainable communities across this country.

My Department has developed strategic interventions, funding programmes and supports which target and address basic issues of social and or economic deprivation in rural and urban communities throughout the country. In the present COVID-19 environment the supports provided by my Department to assist vulnerable communities are more important than ever.

The 2020 Revised Estimate allocated almost €375 million (gross) to my Department this year and I am delighted to report that spending is in on track as we approach year-end, ensuring that substantial supports continue to be provided to communities in urban and rural areas. This funding includes the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), the Community Services Programme, the CLÁR Programme, the Community Enhancement Programme, the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and funding for public libraries across the country.

My Department is also responsible for a number of national policies that provide, for both urban and rural areas nationwide, an integrated and strategic way of delivering supports, programmes and schemes, coordinating measures to address imbalances or lack of opportunity, making a real difference to people’s lives. These include the National Policy on Social Enterprise, the Strategy to Support the Community & Voluntary Sector in Ireland, and a new rural development policy which is currently being finalised and which I expect to be published in the near future.