Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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95. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will detail some of the successes of the social inclusion and community activation programme since its creation; the impact that the funding increase to €46 million in Budget 2023 will have; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53102/22]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), is our country’s primary social inclusion programme. The current iteration began on 1 January 2018 and will run until the end of 2023. My officials have begun the process of developing a new iteration of SICAP which will begin in 2024. The programme provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion at a local level through local engagement and partnerships between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies.

The funding for SICAP is subject to the annual budgetary estimates process and I was delighted to secure funding in Budget 2023 for the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) increasing from €44 million to €46 million in 2023.

Earlier this year, an additional €5 million funding was announced to support the Local Development Companies, through SICAP, for the community response to support people arriving from Ukraine. An additional €10 million is also being provided under SICAP in 2023 to allow Local Development Companies to continue their work to support arrivals from the Ukraine

As outlined in the 2021 Annual Report which is available at this link: www.pobal.ie/app/uploads/2022/07/SICAP-2021-Annual-Report.pdf.

- Over 10,000 people have participated in Training courses, apprenticeships or work experience.

- €336,988 was allocated to Local Community Groups though grants in 2021 and also the SICAP programme supported 501 Social Enterprises.

I was delighted that the SICAP programme won the prestigious 2022 UN Public Services Award, in the category ‘Institutional Resilience and Innovative Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic’. The success of SICAP was recognised internationally for its immense work, particularly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I recognise the vital work the programme does in helping so many individuals and groups, by improving the life chances of those who are marginalised in society, living in poverty or unemployed, and I will continue to prioritise funding for SICAP within my Department’s overall voted expenditure.