Vol. 514 No. 6
250 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, in place to set up a resource centre in Ballymote, County Sligo; the discussions, if any, which have taken place; when the project will commence; the timescale involved; the amount of money allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5128/00]
Funding is available from the Department towards the cost of staffing and equipping of local resource centres which provide a focal point for community development activities in disadvantaged areas under the community development programme – CDP – and the family and community services resource centre programme.
Under Partnership 2000 my Department was committed to identifying 30 new priority areas for the expansion of the community development programme. The regional support agencies funded under this programme undertook research to identify these 30 areas and also identified areas for expansion of the Department's family and community services resource centre programme. The research carried out in 1998 by the regional support agency for the north-west region, identified Ballymote as an area for future targeting and for pre-development work.
Following on from this research the regional support agency commenced work in the Ballymote area with a view to establishing a family and community services resource centre in that area and this work will be ongoing in the coming months.
In order to participate in the Department's programmes groups are required to prepare a work plan setting out their aims and objectives for a three year period. As this proposal would also detail the budget required to implement the work plan it is not possible in advance of considering such a detailed work plan to indicate what level of funding may be made available to a centre in this area.
However, when the pre-development work has been undertaken and a satisfactory work plan has been agreed with my Department an appropriate level of funding will be allocated to support this development.
