Thomas Gould
Question:65. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding available to develop new community centres. [19280/23]
View answerTuesday, 25 April 2023
Questions (65)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
I am looking to find out what funding is available to develop new community centres.
I thank Deputy Gould for raising this matter.
Community centres are the cornerstone of community life in many towns, villages and urban areas across the country, and this Government recognises the important role they play in community life in Ireland, bringing people together and engaging with those who may be marginalised or disadvantaged. With that in mind, my Department has put in place an integrated programme of supports for the establishment and development of community centres across schemes such as CLÁR, LEADER, the community support fund, the town and village renewal scheme and the new community centres investment fund.
The 2022 community centres investment fund was warmly welcomed the length and breadth of the country. Over €45.5 million has been committed to the improvement and refurbishment of existing community centres across the country. These projects are ongoing and will be completed over the coming year.
Following on from that, I want to assist community groups striving to build their own community centres to service local needs, so this year the focus of the community centres investment fund has moved to new builds. This focus will help specifically those towns and villages that have no community centre whatsoever.
In March I was delighted to announce a €20 million fund to support communities with "shovel-ready" projects on greenfield or brownfield sites to build new community centres. This measure will target areas which do not have an appropriate facility to meet the needs of their area. The minimum grant funding available is €1 million, with the maximum being €6 million. The deadline for receipt of applications is 3 July 2023 and I encourage communities that have eligible projects with planning permission to submit an application under the fund.
As the Minister herself has just recognised, community centres are the heart of communities. They are a safe place, a great meeting place, a place where people can come together to build their community. A lot of places, however, do not have community centres and, as a result, suffer. In my constituency, the area of Ballyvolane does not have a community centre. It has hundreds of houses, and hundreds more are planned, but there is no community centre and the community has lost out in a major way over the years and will continue to lose out unless a community centre is built.
Also, there is Riverstown Community Centre, which does great work, but Glanmire is in a community with thousands of people and is constantly growing. It needs an all-purpose community centre built. Like Ballyvolane, Glanmire has been at a loss for years and badly needs a community centre now. We saw during the Celtic tiger how communities were let down by bad planning and lack of infrastructure and facilities. As a result, communities missed out and lost out. Is the Department now looking at new housing developments to ensure that community centres are at the core at a strategic level? On top of that there are areas such as Bishopstown in Cork, where the community centre is not fit for purpose. There is a derelict sign up there. All they need is the funding, so I welcome what the Minister said. Also, areas like Blarney need funding. I will be talking to all the people involved over the next few days to ensure they take advantage of the funds the Minister said are there.
I agree with my colleague from Cork North-Central. I happen to have been chairperson of Blackpool Community Centre a number of years ago - in fact, when we applied for planning permission for a community centre in Ballyvolane. Unfortunately, however, there were so many local objections that it never got planning. I think the mistake that was made in Ballyvolane was about a site not being set aside on day one for a community centre and that it would be built at the same time as the houses were. There are over 1,200 or 1,300 houses there, and then when the houses are all up it is decided to apply for planning. We need to do a lot more in that regard with planning, making sure that people, when they are buying their houses, know the community centre will be close to them in order that we do not allow what happened in Ballyvolane 20-odd years ago, since when nothing has happened there.
In the area of Glanmire there is a need for the local authority to work with the Department on identifying a site and getting the funding. GAA clubs have been very good as regards developing facilities but they too are confined in what they can do because of a lack of space. There needs to be a lot more done by local authorities and then the Department can become involved in providing the funding.
I congratulate the Minister on this initiative and on the refurbishment initiative. It is far-seeing and visionary. Well done to her. How are the applications going at the moment in this regard? Is there significant interest? It appears that the window for making applications is quite tight at just three months, and those who are not shovel-ready with planning and so on will not get past first base. Does the Minister anticipate another round following on in a number of months when this is finished? We have moved from refurbishing existing centres, which is very good, to building new ones, which is excellent. The next step will be to have a fund in place to purchase a site so that a community can get a site. If there is no site, they cannot build anything. In many instances they do not have the ground on which to build a community centre. I agree with what colleagues have said, that community centres are the heart of communities and really and truly do great work. Build it, and they will come.
I thank the Deputies for their contributions. This fund came about because it was raised with me. There were a lot of new communities around the country and I met with a number of Deputies from County Galway. There was one particular area with a lot of new houses and no community centre. They had a lovely plan, in fairness to them, but they had no money. I said to myself that this was happening in other parts of the country as well. That is why we opened up the €20 million fund. I want it shovel-ready with planning permission in place and I want it to be ready to go, go, go. The Deputy rightly asked me why funding is not being spent. For this specific scheme, we wanted shovel-ready projects. There will be other opportunities. There is always funding available for good projects. I have just allocated €45.5 million for the upgrade of existing community centres and that was very much welcomed. There is €20 million in this fund. We will see what the demand is like. I think there will be a keen interest in it. Some places will not be ready but they might be ready next year if there was another similar type of fund. We will see how it goes. There is €20 million there. The local authorities have a role here too now. The communities need to talk to their local authorities. If we are talking about buying a site, I cannot see why a local authority could not either give or help with the acquisition of a site.