Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
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55. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if, as a result of the introduction of auto-enrolment and the increase in the minimum wage that come into effect from January 2026, additional consideration and funding has been provided to all Departments responsible for community groups and/or organisations that rely on State funding, in response to these increases. [62157/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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63. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the provisions that have been made by Pobal and similar organisations under the remit of his Department, to ensure that organisations funded by them are sufficiently resourced to comply with the pension auto enrolment commitments for qualifying staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [67894/25]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 63 together.

The Government's five-year strategy, Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities, which has been extended to end 2025, aims to support the community and voluntary sector. This whole of Government strategy, led by my Department, is implemented and overseen collaboratively with the sector through the Cross Sector Group on Local and Community Development.

The community and voluntary sector is quite diverse and receives financial support through a wide range of funding programmes and schemes from Government departments and agencies, including my own Department.

My Department’s Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention. The current SICAP Programme, which began on 1st of January 2024 will run until the end of 2028. An increase in core funding of €1.5m has been secured for the programme in 2026, in line with the Programme for Government’s commitments to incrementally increase funding for SICAP, bringing the annual funding in 2026 to over €50m.

As part of funding arrangements for SICAP, Programme Implementers are permitted to use up to 25% of their overall annual allocation to cover administration costs associated with delivering the programme, including staff salary and pension costs.

The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports 426 community-based organisations, with a budget of €59.4m allocated for 2026, to provide 446 local services nationwide, through a social enterprise model. The CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage and is not intended to meet the full employment cost of supported posts. The contribution must be co-funded by other sources, for example, from income received from the public for the use of their facilities and services.

My Department has no operational role in relation to the wage rates, including pension obligations arising for community development organisations, including CSP-supported organisations. These are solely matters for the Boards of those organisations, to manage as the respective employers, subject to compliance with employment legislation. Notwithstanding this, increased funding has been provided over the past three years to most CSP-funded organisations to support increases in the costs of employment.

The New Solutions Social Innovation Fund, which is co-funded through the European Social Fund+ 2021-2027, is aimed at reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion, with an emphasis on disadvantaged groups. Under the initiative, salary and pension costs for employees are allowable costs, subject to evidenced invoice payments.

Údarás na Gaeltachta has a comprehensive strategic development approach to managing the increased demand for funding from Gaeltacht community development organisations, with a 59% increase in direct funding provided to these organisations over the past five years. The distribution of funding is based on annual work plans prepared by the community development organisations. The Community Development Unit within an tÚdarás in collaboration with the relevant officers and Regional Managers, carries out a comprehensive assessment of the applications to address the needs of the organisation.