Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 May 2018
16. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans for the roll-out of the RAPID programme in the coming years; the method by which he will ensure that RAPID funding is spent for the benefit of the persons living in RAPID areas; the method by which the programme will leverage actions and funding from other Departments towards the RAPID areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19154/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraContrary to a sometimes popular perception, the reality is that the most deprived communities in the State are in urban areas. Many of them are in this city, even though we are told it is a very successful one, but they are also in towns around the country. How is the Minister going to ensure that the RAPID programme helps the most disadvantaged communities and does not get spread out into more affluent areas?
In line with a commitment under the programme for Government, I launched a new RAPID programme in 2017. This was a brand new programme to replace the original RAPID scheme that was funded a number of years ago. Under the new programme, funding is provided for local authority areas instead of for specific RAPID areas as had been the case in the past. Local community development committees, LCDCs, operating under the aegis of the local authorities, allocate the funding to individual projects at a local level.
My Department is currently developing proposals for an enhanced programme to support disadvantaged communities and I hope to make an announcement in this regard in the coming weeks. My intention is that the programme will continue to focus on addressing areas of local disadvantage and that LCDCs will continue to administer the programme at local level. By using local structures and local knowledge, we can ensure that funding is given to those areas most in need.
I am concerned by the Minister's answer. By their nature, the LCDCs are going to focus right across the whole local authority area. Taking the Minister's county of Mayo as an example, there is a RAPID area in Ballina but the LCDC represents urban, rural, affluent and not so affluent areas. How is the Minister going to ensure that the focus is on the areas that got the designation? They tended to lose out. What structures are in place to ensure that the housing estates that were the cause of the designation have a big input into where the RAPID funds go?
In respect of the recent programme, I allocated €6 million in funding, of which €2 million went to the LCDCs. I divided that equally around the country this year. Some €3.5 million will be ring-fenced this year and last year there was €2.5 million ring-fenced for Dublin inner city, in particular. Some €500,000 of that funding was for legacy schemes that had been there in the past. The Deputy is quite correct. That is why I am asking the LCDCs. They are the people who are on the ground, have the local knowledge and should be able to identify where the difficulties are. The Deputy is correct that there is both urban and rural disadvantage. In particular, there are very serious problems in urban areas of disadvantage. That is why we ring-fenced the €3.5 million this year for Dublin inner city. That is why I gave Cherry Orchard €100,000 at the end of last year. It came and made a case to me in respect of difficulties that it had.
The Deputy is quite correct. We are looking at the scheme and I intend to have a new scheme up and running by the end of May. I want to identify the areas most in need of funding. I do not want it to be going to areas that do not have the same need. I want them to target the areas that need it most. That is why we are reviewing the scheme at present. The Deputy asked me about the funding and how every county gets the same funding. We need to look at ways and means of identifying the counties and areas most in need of funding.
The Minister is calling this RAPID, which was the name of a previous programme. Under the previous programme, there were geographically defined areas in which we know scientifically from statistics there is the greatest level of deprivation. Can the Minister tell me if the funding is ring-fenced for the benefit of those areas, or have the LCDCs the power to spend it anywhere they want in the county?
Previously, when we had the area implementation teams, AITs, which are now replaced by the LCDCs, there were regular meetings around a table with the Garda Síochána, the HSE, the education and training boards, ETBs, and SOLAS to focus on these areas of concentrated disadvantage. I am concerned that the Minister seems to be diluting the scheme away from those areas. What mechanism has he got in place to focus specifically on the RAPID areas, or has he done away with the concept of a RAPID area as a defined area in which we know statistically that we have massive concentrations of disadvantage?
In respect of the last programme, there was a value for money audit done in 2011. From that audit, we were told that we were not to continue the practice of the previous scheme. That was in the report. I took over this programme in the middle of last year when I took over the new Department. I was anxious to get the programme out before the end of the year.
This is why I made sure that funding was made available to me. The LCDCs and the local authorities gave out to me on the basis that it was too late in the year to get that funding out. The value for money audit programme told me it did not want the structure that was in place. There were 51 areas at the time with co-ordinators so it felt we were not getting best value for money. This is why I must introduce a new scheme, why I am looking at the scheme and why when I announce the scheme at the end of May I intend to address some of the issues mentioned by the Deputy. I gave a commitment to the Deputy in the committee that I would come back to the committee. This is one of the issues we can tease out then.
