Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Mar 1997

Vol. 476 No. 4

Written Answers. - Community Development Programme.

Seán Kenny

Question:

118 Mr. S. Kenny asked the Minister for Social Welfare the involvement, if any, of his Department in the recent removal of five members of the board of management of the Darndale Belcamp Resource Centre Limited, Dublin 17. [7302/97]

Minister for Social Welfare (Proinsias De Rossa)

Darndale-Belcamp resource centre is one of some 80 projects funded by my Department under the community development programme.

Following a complaint made in relation to the workings of the project in September 1996, the Department wrote to the management committee expressing concern at the implications the reported difficulties could have for the future work and viability of the project. The Department asked Meitheal, a community training and support organisation with specific responsibility under the community development programme for supporting CDP projects in Dublin North, to offer its assistance to the resource centre in relation to this matter.

Given the overall number of projects in the community development programme it is inevitable that some of the projects will experience difficulties. My Department's approach in all such cases is to work constructively with all concerned to try to resolve the problem and re-establish the project concerned on a sound footing and this is the approach being adopted in this case.

I am informed that a number of meetings of the centre's management committee were held since September to facilitate a full discussion of the complaints and the issues arising from them. At a management committee meeting on 12 February 1997 it was decided to replace the existing management committee with a smaller group that could work together as a team to turn the Centre around. This was a decision made by the management of the resource centre and my Department was not involved.

The Department is continuing to fund Darndale-Belcamp resource centre on an interim basis to allow the group to resolve the situation.