Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) supports over 420 community-based organisations, to provide local services through a social enterprise model.

The CSP contribution per full-time equivalent position is not aligned with the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts. It is an annual contribution that must be co-funded by the organisations concerned from other sources, for example, from income generated from the use of facilities and services provided.

Following the independent review of the CSP programme in 2020 by Indecon International Economic Consultants, as part of the restructuring process, a needs-based, differentiated funding allocation model was designed for the programme, as an alternative to the previous flat rate payment model. While the CSP funding allocation is not aligned to the minimum wage level, the new funding rate allocation model which came into effect on 1^stJanuary 2023, was designed to support those organisations most in need, providing a higher rate of funding to supported organisations that are identified as operating in areas of high disadvantage, employing individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and with evidence of limited earning potential. Organisations categorised as having a high or medium funding need benefited from increases of €4,000 and €2,000 respectively per Full Time Equivalent and Manager. No change was introduced for the small number of organisations in the low funding category - these are organisations identified with the strongest earning potential and operating in less disadvantaged areas.

In addition to these revised allocations, a reduction in full time hours from 39 to 37.5 hours was approved under the redesigned CSP programme, to narrow the co-funding gap for CSP supported employees even further.

My department is currently reviewing the impact of the increase of €1.40 per hour to the minimum wage level from 1^stJanuary 2024, which was announced as part of the recent budget statements. It is expected that the outcome of the review will be made known in the coming weeks.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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337. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she is aware of the application made by a group (details supplied) under the Pobal community services programme; and if so, if she will provide an update on the status of this application. [49139/23]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) 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.

A Call for Proposals in respect of specific CSP services issued on March 6th this year and interested organisations were requested to submit a concept note as the first step in the application process. The concept note was for potential applicants to express an interest in making a full application for entry to the Community Services Programme.

Pobal, who manage and administer the Programme on behalf of my Department, received a huge volume of concept notes and as a result the CSP call was hugely over-subscribed and not all organisations who submitted a concept note were invited to formally submit an application.

Pobal have confirmed that they received and assessed a concept note from the named organisation and informed them they were eligible under this Open Call. The organisation was subsequently invited to submit an application under stage 2 which was duly received. All applications have been assessed by Pobal and their recommendations are currently being reviewed by my Department. It is expected that the first tranche of organisations approved following their stage 2 application will be notified by the end of November with the remaining organisations notified in early 2024.