Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Not-for-profit and voluntary organisations in the Community and Voluntary sector are woven into the fabric of community life across Ireland, but they are vulnerable to the impact of challenges such as the increased energy costs in recent months.

In response to the rising energy costs during Winter 2022, Government introduced a number of supports to assist with those costs. My Department responded by introducing the Community & Voluntary Energy Support Scheme (CVESS) and the Community Support Fund (CSF).

CVESS was launched last November to provide for a once-off payment to eligible charities and community and voluntary sector organisations. I was pleased to announce Tranche 4 of funding on Friday last, which brought the total number of organisations supported under the initiative to 680, with over €918,000 now disbursed. While this scheme is now closed, applications continue to be assessed in batches.

The Community Support Fund was designed to provide support to community groups across the country for example, Parish Halls, Community Centres, Local Development Associations, Social Clubs, Senior Citizen Groups, and others. The fund, delivered locally through the LCDCs, aimed to deliver small grants to help groups with running costs and rising energy bills. Funding could also be used to carry out small upgrade works and to purchase equipment to support their activities such as laptops and printers, lawnmowers, training equipment, etc. The Community Support Fund is now closed to applicants and details of successful projects will be published on gov.ie in the coming weeks.