Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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1480. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to list all awards under the community and voluntary energy support scheme and any other once-off DRCD energy cost-of-living supports paid to organisations in County Carlow and County Kilkenny showing recipient, location, amount approved, and amount paid; with totals per county from 2022 to date in 2025;, in tabular form. [48802/25]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2019, my Department published Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities - A five-year strategy to support the community and voluntary sector in Ireland 2019-2024. The implementation of the strategy is being overseen by the Cross-Sectoral Group on Local and Community Development which supports my Department in the prioritisation of objectives and actions to be progressed within the framework of annual workplans.

In the years since the strategy was adopted, notable initiatives have been taken by my Department to support the C&V sector in respect of both energy costs and general running costs.

The Community & Voluntary Energy Support Scheme (CVESS) which was introduced in 2022 allocated €1.4m and assisted 876 organisations nationally to meet higher energy costs. This scheme complemented other energy cost support measures introduced by the government in 2022. The allocations paid to organisations from the CVESS in Counties Carlow and County Kilkenny for the years 2022 – 2025) are set out in the tables hereunder.

The Community Enhancement Programme (CEP) was launched in 2018. Now known as the Local Enhancement Programme (LEP), it has distributed funding of almost €66 million since it began in 2018.

The LEP provides funding to assist thousands of community groups across the country with mostly capital supports to help with small capital projects and the purchase of equipment. A number of iterations of the programme also provided current funding to provide support towards utility bills, rental/lease costs, insurance costs etc. The LEP is targeted to the specific challenges facing local community groups and delivers immediate, tangible supports where they are needed most.

Details of Carlow and Kilkenny LCDC’s overall funding allocations under the CEP/LEP from 2020 – 2025 are available in the table below. Details of the allocations for LEP 2026 will be announced later in the year.

*Allocations are made to the LCDC’s at the end of the year prior to the programme year i.e. funding allocated in 2024 was for LEP 2025.

Details of individual projects awarded funding under the LEP and its various iterations can be found on my Departments website www.gov.ie/en/department-of-rural-and-community-development-and-the-gaeltacht/policy-information/local-enhancement-programme/

Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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1481. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to provide details of seniors alert scheme equipment grants delivered in County Carlow and County Kilkenny, including sponsoring group, number of beneficiaries, location, amount paid, with annual totals by county and year from 2020 to date in 2025, in tabular form. [48803/25]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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The Seniors Alert Scheme supports older people to live securely, with peace of mind, in their homes through the provision of a personal monitored alarm. Funding is available under the scheme towards the purchase, by a registered community-based organisation, of a wearable alarm and a year of monitoring.

Since the Seniors Alert Scheme was launched in 2015, over 153,000 participants have been approved for the alarms, including over 18,200 in 2024.

The current iteration of the scheme came into effect in September 2021 and, along with the provision of free monitoring for the first year and a revision of the living alone requirements, it introduced a new key feature in the additional option of a digital alarm, for use with web-based connections.

Senior Alert Scheme expenditure for County Carlow and Kilkenny is detailed in the table below. In the interests of client confidentiality, locations have not been listed. It should be noted that the beneficiaries include new participants in the scheme and existing participants, who have had their devices replaced, rather than multi-year cumulative figures