Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 420 community-based organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model. CSP provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager.

As part of the CSP restructuring process, a new funding model was introduced from January 2023. All organisations were required to re-apply under the programme as all previous contracts ceased on 31 December 2022 and contracts were awarded under the new funding model in January 2023. Organisations were also afforded the opportunity to appeal their funding allocation on specific grounds.

An independent review of all appeals was conducted by Pobal, who administer the programme on behalf of my department. This review has now been completed and on 29th May last, Pobal notified the organisation in question of the decision that their appeal had been partially upheld. I understand that the decision notification outlines the reasons for this decision.