Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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27. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht whether his Department has undertaken any comprehensive, national needs assessment of community infrastructure including community centres, youth facilities, sports and recreational spaces; if so, when this was last completed; and if he will publish the findings. [22999/26]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I am acutely aware of the importance of community infrastructure including community centres, youth facilities, sports and recreational spaces in communities across the country.

Responsibility for youth spaces and sport would be a matter for my Government colleagues, Ms. Hildegarde Naughton, TD, Minister for Education & Youth and Mr. Patrick O'Donovan, TD, Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport respectively.

My department has a suite of funding opportunities to support communities in becoming more resilient and to assist them with the development and maintenance of key community facilities and infrastructure.

The development of outdoor recreation infrastructure contributes to opportunities for healthy active lifestyles, while also building on the economic and tourism potential of an area. Since 2020, some €110m has been allocated by my Department to support over 1,350 projects through the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme.

'Embracing Ireland’s Outdoors', the national outdoor recreation strategy, is supporting the development of County Outdoor Recreation Plans and the establishment of County Outdoor Recreation Committees right across the country. These new county structures will ensure an improved approach to planning and development of sustainable and higher quality outdoor recreation spaces, and will be crucial in considering where investment in facilities is most needed within each county.

My department has also been investing heavily in improved community centres and youth facilities through schemes such as the CLÁR programme and the Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF).

On the 10th of March last, I opened the new CLÁR programme for 2026 with an increased budget of €12 million and an increase in the number of areas eligible to apply to the scheme. The CLÁR programme has facilitated the development of important community and youth facilities including community centres and Multi Use Games Areas.

I am also prioritising the CCIF which is designed specifically to invest in community centres. This scheme was introduced in response to the accepted need to invest in improved facilities. So far, my department has allocated over €111 million to over 1300 different community centres since the scheme was introduced just 4 years ago.

I want to build on the success of this scheme and, this morning, I was delighted to launch the latest round of funding under CCIF which will focus on refurbishment works in community centres across the country.

Full details of all funding programmes administered by my Department, are available on my Department’s website.