Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 February 2004
335 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs when funding will be made available to a group (details supplied) in County Sligo following its community development programme application. [3418/04]
View answerMy Department was established to produce a co-ordinated engagement by the State with communities around the country, as they pursue their own development. A key challenge facing the Department in this regard is the number and complexity of structures involved in the delivery of local and community development programmes. Following the completion of the review of local and community development structures, I recently brought forward proposals, which Government has now agreed, designed to improve cohesion and focus across various measures. This included a recommendation, on the basis of maximising recourse to existing structures, that there should be no further expansion of the community development support programmes, after the completion of the current programme.
Partnership 2000 committed the Government to identifying 30 priority areas for inclusion in the community development support programme. Community development projects were established in 15 of these areas last September. Apart from the remaining 15 actively targeted areas, it is not now intended, in light of the outcome of the review, to establish any further community development projects. Accordingly, as the project to which the Deputy refers is not one of the priority areas identified for a community development project under Partnership 2000, it will not be possible to fund it in the foreseeable future.
