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Community Development Initiatives

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 July 2014

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Questions (490)

Maureen O'Sullivan

Question:

490. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to a public meeting that has been organised in response to a local community's experience of economic decline and underdevelopment (details supplied); the ways in which his Department directly, or agencies accountable, either directly or indirectly to his Department, including the local authorities, Pobal and the Dormant Accounts Fund, can provide assistance and facilitation to a community that is taking steps in this way to organise itself and develop its resources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29032/14]

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Written answers

A key policy objective of my Department is to facilitate integrated development at local level and foster vibrant, sustainable and inclusive communities, and to support the Community and Voluntary Sector in its contribution to an active, democratic and pluralist society. I recently adopted a new Dormant Accounts Action Plan for 2014 that will provide diverse supports for disadvantaged communities, including measures to promote youth employment, employability and entrepreneurship, training for carers and support for people with disabilities. Measures under my Department will be administered by Pobal and applications will be invited later this year.

The LEADER elements of the 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme, for which my Department is responsible, will be operational in early 2015. The Programme will fund enterprise development, job creation, rural tourism and recreation initiatives. It will also target social inclusion through building community capacity, training, basic services for hard to reach communities and initiatives aimed at rural youth.

In addition, the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA) was launched by An Taoiseach in April 2014. The report contains 34 recommendations which look at invigorating rural Ireland. An interdepartmental expert group is now being established to consider the CEDRA recommendations and to report back to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs with a draft work plan for moving forward the implementation of the recommendations.

My Department's Local and Community Development Programme is the largest social inclusion intervention of its kind in the State and will be succeeded in January 2015 by the new Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP). These programmes aim to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government, and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities. It is a key tool of Government in providing employment supports, training, personal development/capacity building and other supports for the harder to reach in the most disadvantaged areas in society. It is a locally accessible, frontline intervention, supporting disadvantaged communities.

The Government is committed to improving service delivery from the point of view of the citizen and my Department will continue its work in this regard.

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