Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1282. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development to provide details of total funding for SICAP in each of the last ten years, in tabular form; if he accepts that SICAP funding has not kept pace with increasing social need, and if he will commit to a substantial funding increase in Budget 2026. [23397/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention, aiming to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality by supporting disadvantaged communities and individuals. SICAP is a national programme delivered in both rural and urban areas by Local Development Companies (LDCs) to help those in the greatest need.

The funding for SICAP is subject to the annual budgetary Estimates process. I acknowledge that funding for social inclusion measures was reduced after 2008. However, there has been a positive trend of year-on-year increases in SICAP funding in recent years, with 2022 seeing the largest increase in funding at 10%, or €4m. In 2023 funding increased by €1.3m, in 2024 an increase of €3m and in 2025 a further increase of €1.5m. This represents a total increase of €9.8m for the programme over the past five years, bringing the annual funding to €48.9m in 2025. SICAP allocations for the last 10 years are provided in the table below.

Separate to SICAP, a wide variety of additional social inclusion measures have also been initiated and funded by my Department, with some recent examples being the Empowering Communities Programme, the Community Development Programme and the newly announced Community Connection Project.

I am keenly aware that challenges remain for communities across Ireland, and in that context I want to reiterate my commitment to continuing this positive trend of funding increases for SICAP, in line with commitments in the Programme for Government.

SICAP Allocations