Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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714. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the estimated required increase in funding to the community services programme, in line with an increase by €0.80 to €13.50 per hour for people aged 20 years or over. [41563/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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My Department's Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports over 430 community-based organisations, with a budget of €52.4m in 2024, 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.

The CSP contribution per FTE position is not aligned with the minimum wage and is not intended to 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 to address any funding gaps to meet, at a minimum, the national minimum wage rates that are applicable to their employees.

Notwithstanding the above, the new funding rate allocation model, which came into effect on 1^st of January 2023, was designed to support those organisations assessed as being most in need, providing a higher rate of funding to supported organisations identified as operating in areas of high disadvantage, employing individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and with evidence of limited earning potential.

I have considered the potential impacts on CSP-supported organisations of the increase in the minimum wage levels from 1st January 2025 and I intend to provide additional support in 2025.

In 2025, the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) posts to be supported is projected at 1,726. The related estimated increase in costs to CSP-supported organisations, in line with an increase of €0.80 to €13.50 per hour, would be €2,692,560, not including Employer's PRSI.

The Revised Estimates Volume 2025, which will be published in December 2025, will provide the voted allocations for each funding area of my Department.