Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 December 2021
55. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the support available to communities to help with the upkeep and enhancement of community centres; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60132/21]
View answer59. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development when the fund for the upgrade of community centres that was announced as part of budget 2022 will be in place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60005/21]
View answer68. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of the new fund for enhancing or upgrading community centres; if consideration is being given to assisting communities that currently do not have a centre to develop one; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60080/21]
View answerI thank the Minister for the work she is doing in this area and for the schemes that are in place. My concern relates to the need for the upkeep and enhancement of community centres. I note that she has touched on this earlier but there are additional strains out there now such that over the past two years community groups and community centres have not been able to hold fundraising events or social functions and, therefore, there is a significant drain on the funding that they would normally have. I would welcome if something further could be done to help those community centres to continue to provide those facilities and to make sure those facilities are safe and maintained in a proper and safe manner.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 59 and 68 together, for which I thank Deputies Colm Burke, Higgins and O'Dowd.
I acknowledge the importance of community centres. They are the cornerstone of community life in many places around the country. My Department has a number of schemes that communities can avail of for the upkeep, enhancement or establishment of community centres. The Department provides small capital grants for the improvement of facilities through the community enhancement programme. The 2021 programme provided funding of €4.5 million and will be available again in 2022.
The €9 million community activities fund was recently launched to support community and voluntary groups impacted by Covid-19. This fund will help community groups, particularly in disadvantaged areas, with their running costs, such as utility or insurance bills, as well as with improvements to their facilities. In addition, the €49 million community services programme supports more than 420 community organisations, including community centres, to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model. Funding is provided as a contribution towards the cost of employing staff in these organisations.
The Minister referenced the town and village renewal scheme. It is also relevant to community centres, supporting the repurposing of community buildings in town centres to facilitate remote working and other projects to bring vacant and derelict buildings back into use. A new capital fund for the upgrade of community centres was referenced in the national development plan and funding of €5 million has been secured for this under budget 2022. The details of this capital scheme are currently being developed within my Department and it will be launched in 2022, with further details to be announced in due course.
I am raising this issue in the context of a new role for community centres, as mentioned by my colleague, Deputy Stanton. For that new role to be put in place, a large number of community centres need to be upgraded, particularly in rural areas where there is no broadband provision. I know of an area where there is no broadband, landline or mobile phone connection, but the local community centre has a hub in place, which is extremely important for that area. Other areas do not have access to a hub for people to work from. In one particular area, where more than 900 primary schoolchildren are in four schools, we are working to try to get a broadband hub into the local community centre, in respect of which the lack of engagement from the local authority surprises me. There is a need to examine the involvement of local authorities in the context of whether they are being proactive enough. We need to consider a new role for community centres, which I think is possible. They will respond to that need. That is the reason we need additional funding.
On the final point raised by the Deputy, the broadband officer in the local authority is the person to chase up on that issue. I would like to reference some allocations in the Deputy's area under the community activities fund. A €9 million fund was announced recently, applications for which are open until February but the spending must be done by August next year. Cork City Council received an allocation of €307,000 and Cork County Council received an allocation of €312,000. Under the community enhancement programme, the allocation for this year was €153,000 in the city and €156,000 in the county. Regarding the particular community centre mentioned by the Deputy, the community services programme has also been enhanced significantly during the Covid period.
In the past few weeks, we added another €1 million to the support fund specifically for organisations that struggled during the pandemic and did not have the opportunity to achieve an earned income because they had to close.
In regard to the involvement of local authorities, has the Department had feedback from them on the schemes that are in place? I am not satisfied there is sufficient feedback into the Department setting out clearly the local authorities' targets and making sure those targets comply with what the Department wants.
I recognise the work the Minister of State is doing in this area and his personal interest in it. With reference to Question No. 68, will he outline what supports are in place to assist communities that do not currently have a centre to develop one? Will he consider doing a national audit of towns and villages across the country to see where the deficits are and to encourage and support local authorities to put in place measures to ensure, first, that land is made available and that community centres can be constructed in those locations? It might be done as part of a planning condition. I am involved in a small community centre that is used by 1,000 people a week. It is amazing to see people, young and old, using it, as well as children's clubs, fitness clubs and God knows what else. If we build it, they will come. It is a fantastic facility and the community services programme is terrific. I support the Minister of State in the work he is doing in this area. I encourage him to carry out an audit across the country to see where the blank spots are and support the provision of centres in some of those areas.
To pick up on Deputy Burke's point, there certainly is a constant flow of feedback. Regarding the community activities fund and the community enhancement programme, decisions in terms of local allocations are made by the local community development committees, LCDCs, in a bottom-up approach. The main feedback we get is that the schemes are very popular and are, in fact, oversubscribed, which is why we were glad to put more funding in that direction this year as well. In terms of the strategy, it should fit in with the local economic and community plan, but it is the LCDCs making the calls in terms of where the funding goes, with the proviso that it goes to the areas that need it most.
I take Deputy Stanton's point about scoping, broadly speaking. As I mentioned earlier, community centres across the country have a different life. If there is an area with no centre and a need for one, my first question would be to the local authority as to why it did not plan for that. I see it in my constituency, where there are large housing estates and the facilities, including community centres, were not put in when they were built. The first thing to do is to see whether the local authority can provide a piece of land to get things going. Securing land is often where projects start and get moving.
I agree with what the Minister of State said but I encourage him to engage with local authorities in this matter. They need encouragement, support and a policy direction. Does he agree that community centres can provide services, facilities and a place for people, young and old, to go at night and where communities can really develop? We need more of them and, where there is a deficit, that needs to be identified and encouragement provided to local authorities to address it. Such provision should be a condition of planning when new estates are being built in order that we do not have wildernesses and deserts, with rows of houses and no facilities. The Minister of State knows where that leads.
The new capital fund will open up that dialogue. One of the advantages of opening a specifically identified and named fund for community centres is that the process of dealing with applications will give us a good sense of the need that exists. It will enhance the conversation with local authorities because we will not always be saying, "Yes, here is your money", especially if the local authority has a clear responsibility in the matter. I take the Deputy's point in that regard. We will be developing more in this space in terms of dialogue with local authorities and pinning down the need across the country. One of the reasons there is provision in this regard in the national development plan and the programme for Government is that all parties involved knew very well the need that is there. I look forward to progressing matters in this area.
Bogfaimid air aghaidh go dtí an chéad cheist eile a bhfuil an Teachta anseo. That is Question No. 65.
