Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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78. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the supports in place to assist community organisations that do not have the capacity to apply for funding. [40575/24]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister of State outline the supports in place to assist community organisations that do not have the capacity to apply for funding? In my experience, in many cases, community associations in more affluent areas with professional people have more capacity. On the opposite side, in working-class areas where great people are doing unbelievable work on the ground, many of them do not have the skill set to access funding. There is quite a lot of work involved in trying to access funding. The Minister of State might respond to the question, please.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Supports are available across my Department's broad range of funding programmes to build the capacity of groups to engage in application processes. The social inclusion and community activation programme is the Government's primary social inclusion intervention. The newest iteration features a dedicated core area of community animation, focusing on building capacity in community representative structures, establishing new community groups, and empowering communities to lead on identifying their own needs and sustainably managing their response to challenges into the future.

Within the social inclusion area, capacity is also being built through the Empowering Communities programme, which aims to empower local communities to craft their own response to area-based poverty, social exclusion and the resulting consequences, with the support of the relevant local community development committee.

With regard to the community services programme, CSP, last year my Department provided a series of workshops to build capacity in organisations to apply for funding under the programme. Specific funding of €150,000 was also made available through the Dormant Accounts Fund to provide support and capacity-building in organisations that applied under CSP strand 1 and were categorised as eligible with potential.

Related to this, the newly established social innovation measures under the European Social Fund Plus aim to enhance capacity within organisations involved in social innovation and social enterprise. That may not relate directly to the Deputy's constituency, but the LEADER programme is delivered through local action groups and their implementing partners, who work on the ground with prospective applicants to help guide them through the LEADER application process and to see their projects through to completion. This locally led approach and the animation of local communities is a core part of the programme.

With regard to the renewal of town centres, the town centre first policy is a joint initiative between my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage. It is putting in place a suite of supports and tools to help businesses and local communities deliver on the vision for their area.

More generally, my Department has a strong focus on building the capacity of organisations within the community and voluntary sector. Under Sustainable, Inclusive and Empowered Communities, a comprehensive training needs assessment process is now complete with assessment reports due for publication later in this quarter. It is my intention to work with the sector to implement the report recommendations to meet the identified needs.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State spoke about capacity and funding being in place. I represent an area in Cork called Ballyvolane. It is now a massive area with a lot of privately built houses but also social housing. There is a mixture. There is no community centre. Right now, there is a plan to build 1,000 more houses, and in the wider Ballyvolane area there is the possibility of 2,000 houses and no community centre. It is unbelievable. For years, people have been trying to build a community centre there. This is a fabulous and vibrant community. Do you know what happened? Red tape, bureaucracy, Government officials and a lack of support wore people down. Do you know what they said? They said they could not be bothered. By the time people started making progress, all their kids were reared. They were already out of school, in college, working or gone. I want to work with the Minister of State. We have a huge issue here. The communities that do not have the capacity need it. There needs to be boots on the ground to help these communities.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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A couple of points occur to me. If I do not get to them all, I will do it in follow-up. There is a responsibility, if the Deputy is talking specifically about community centres, on the local authority which needs to engage with its local community. I know there is a good community department in Cork and I know a few of the people in there who would be committed. I also know the area of Ballyvolane and I am familiar with the situation the Deputy describes. This is one of the reasons we developed the community centre investment fund as well. That is a big fund with large capital allocations, but it requires the local authority to engage, not just with what is happening on the ground but with us as well. The most accessible support we have, particularly in the Deputy's area, is the SICAP, and in terms of building community capacity, the workers in Cork City Partnership, which I am sure the Deputy is familiar with, would probably be his first go-to point of contact.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Fair Hill is another area in my constituency. The current group of volunteers, because that is what they are, have been doing unbelievable work there for the past ten years. Cork City Council gave them a council house. They have hundreds of children between community groups, youth groups, art groups and counselling. The Minister of State would want to see the work they are doing out of a house. This current group has been together for ten years - some of them even longer - trying to get a community centre. It is under way, but it is so slow. Funding was received this year to clear a site. There is a site they want to progress, but realistically it will take years. Is there a way we can fast-track this, for the Department to put in the resources to work with local authorities? Cork City Council is working with these people. There are different groups, but it needs someone to grab the project, as it were, and put a team around them. We need someone like that. Can the Minister of State deliver that, or can he find a mechanism to deliver it?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I am identifying an immediate need and a long-term need. Building projects take time. If there is a site and the council is engaged with it, we are on for talking to them. We now have the community centre investment fund. It is oversubscribed, but there is an option. There are other options with possible smaller allocations.

One thing I will put out there when it comes to immediate need, and it is something I have worked on with the Minister for Education, is that we have a lot of schools beside Fair Hill, which the Deputy and I are familiar with, and while I do not know the extent to which they open their facilities in the evenings and at weekends, there have been revised guidelines through the Department of Education which are encouraging schools to open up to the wider community in the evenings and at weekends. There are facilities throughout the country lying idle because the board of the school or whatever does not want to go to the trouble-----

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Insurance is the problem.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Yes, that comes up and we can engage with them on it. There are ways around it. A lot of schools open up and some do not, but there is an onus on schools. They are not just education facilities. They are key pieces of infrastructure in the wider community. There may be potential there. I do not know the specifics of the school.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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There are loads of schools, but how do you get them all the equipment? Where do they put all their equipment?

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Deputy will have to put in other supplementary questions.