Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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413. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to specify what the €3 million allocated to community centres will be used for; the amount that will be used for the provision of community childcare, that is, creche, Montessori, breakfast clubs and after school clubs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56124/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Community Centre Investment Fund (or CCIF) was introduced to provide high quality, accessible, community spaces and has provided some €110 million since 2022 for the enhancement and refurbishment of existing community centres and the construction of new centres.

As part of Budget 2026, I was delighted to announce increased funding for the programmes that are delivering on this priority. This includes an increase in the annual budget for the CCIF by €3 million to €20 million.

I am committed to delivering further iterations of the scheme in the coming years in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government for this to become a permanent rolling fund. A decision in relation to the timing of further iterations and the measures to be included will be made in due course.

It should also be noted that the CCIF is a capital funding stream and is not for directly funding the provision of services, many of which are funded by other government departments.