Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

340. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will increase the grant under the community services programme for employing a manager to €40,000 per annum. [46439/22]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department’s Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 430 community organisations to provide employment opportunities and the delivery of a diverse range of local services, through a social enterprise model.

The CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported manager posts, rather it is a fixed annual contribution towards the salary costs of employees in supported organisations, with funding of €19,033 currently provided for each full time equivalent (FTE) position and €32,000 towards a manager's salary, where warranted.

The CSP contribution must be co-funded by the organisation concerned from other sources, for example, from income received from the public use of their facilities and services.

Following an independent review of the CSP, the programme is currently being redesigned. As part of the restructuring process, a new funding rate allocation model will be implemented for FTEs and Managers supported under the CSP programme, as an alternative to the current flat rate payment model. The revised funding rates for the restructured programme have not yet been finalised.

It is anticipated that all existing organisations will transition to the new programme in January 2023 following an application process which will take place later this year.