Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 November 2020
363. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which the schemes to assist in rural and community development are available to communities throughout County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34467/20]
View answerMy Department funds a range of programmes and schemes to assist in rural and community development which are available to eligible community groups and organisations throughout the country, including in Kildare. These schemes provide much needed funding, support and assistance to communities at local level.
These include the €1 billion Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, the LEADER programme; the Community Enhancement Programme, the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP); the Town and Village Renewal Scheme; and the Community Services Programme.
My Department has been provided with a gross budget of €308.25 million for 2020 and I intend to ensure that this money is fully allocated through these and other schemes under my Department's remit to maximise rural and community development opportunities.
I can confirm that, to date, more than €214million of this budget has been allocated nationally, with in excess of €5.8 million allocated to projects and organisations in Co Kildare.
In addition, the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund supports ambitious and strategic projects which have the potential to transform rural economies and communities. To date, under this scheme, six projects located in Kildare have been awarded funding totalling €9,997,306.
The new five-year Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, which commenced at the start of 2018, is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention. This is a €190m national programme that is delivered locally, to help those in the greatest need. The funding allocation to Kildare for 2020 is €1,092,867.
The Community Enhancement Programme has provided funding of €66,570 to projects in Kildare. Under the Community Enhancement Programme for Community Centres/Facilities, funded as part of the Government's July Stimulus Package, €181,230.00 of further funding was awarded to Kildare.
The LEADER Local Action Group (LAG) in Kildare has been allocated €5.2 million to invest in the economic and social development of Co Kildare over the period of the programme to 2020. In 2020, €1,110,020 has so far been approved for LEADER projects in Kildare. The LAG received funding of €975,399 in 2020 for individual project payments and the administration costs of the LAG itself.
The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is part of a package of national and local support measures to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. To date in 2020, I have announced details of 363 projects that were approved for €10.4m under the three rounds of the Accelerated Measure of the Scheme. This funding supports the immediate response of towns and villages to COVID-19 and includes 14 projects totalling €414,700 in Kildare.
The Seniors Alert Scheme facilitates valuable community-based support for vulnerable older people. A total of 1841 installations have been approved for elderly persons in Kildare since September 2015.
The Local Improvement Scheme, or LIS, is a programme for improvement works on small private or non-public roads in rural areas. The scheme is funded by my Department and is administered through the Local Authorities. The funding allocated to Kildare is €250,000 for 2020.
The Community Services Programme, or CSP, supports community organisations to provide local services through a social enterprise model with funding provided as a contribution to the cost of an agreed number of full-time equivalent positions and a manager, where warranted. In 2020, the CSP provided funding of some €436,098 towards the cost of employing over 17 full-time equivalents and three managers in five community-based organisations and social enterprises based in Co Kildare. This funding included €7,000 which was provided to two of the organisations through the Support Fund, to ensure that they could pay their full-time CSP supported employees a maximum of €350 net per week, with a proportionate amount for part-time CSP supported employees. The Expression of Interest (EOI) application process is currently closed but it is expected that the programme will open targeted calls, to address identified gaps in service delivery, in 2021.
The COVID Stability Fund provided a once-off cash injection for organisations and groups currently delivering critical frontline services to the most in need in our society. Five organisations in Kildare were allocated €613,362 in funding through the Fund.
The Department also put in place the €2.5m COVID-19 Emergency Fund to provide immediate and urgently needed funding to community and voluntary groups that participated in the Government’s “Community Call” initiative. Co Kildare was allocated funding of €94,390.00.
Requests for assistance under particular programmes can be made at the appropriate time in respect of the application period for each programme, and these details, along with eligibility criteria and other information, can be found on the Government's website https://www.gov.ie/en/
