Press release
Minister Joe O’Brien continues his official visit in County Galway
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Social Protection, Joe O’Brien, continued his 2-day official visit in Galway today (Tuesday 6 September), hosted by Galway City Partnership and Galway Rural Partnership.
The second day of the Minister’s visit commenced at the Galway Volunteer Centre, where he met with staff and volunteers. The Minister thanked the volunteers for their work in welcoming people from Ukraine and helping them settle into their new communities.
The next stop in the Minister’s itinerary was to visit “Bounce Back Recycling”, where he met with staff and did a factory tour of the mattress recycling process.
Moving on, the Minister met with the team working in Galway City Partnership who deliver programmes on behalf of Government providing supports for the unemployed, supports for communities and supports through education.
The Minister then met with representatives of the Galway County PPN in the offices of Galway County Council where he also met with members of the Community Response Forum for County Galway. Both organisations have played key roles in responding to the challenges particularly over the past two years.
The Minister’s final visit was to Galway Rural Development Company where he met with the staff delivering programmes on behalf of government that includes SICAP, RSS, TÚS, CE and the Empowering Communities Programme.
Speaking about his visit to Galway, Minister O’Brien said:
“It is great to visit Galway and engage with the various Fora that are responding to the current challenges. It is encouraging to see the collaboration and responsiveness of these groups. This is also a great opportunity to visit the many community initiatives that are supported by the Departments of Rural and Community Development and Social Protection and with broader government support.
"There are many challenges facing Government and we will continue to support communities so that they can develop to become vibrant and inclusive places to live and work. The projects in Galway and across the country that I have visited are indicative of the resourcefulness of local communities and the support of the volunteers that make many of these projects a success.”
SICAP is the government’s primary social inclusion programme and aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality through supporting communities and individuals via community development, engagement, and collaboration.
SICAP is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014 - 2021.
SICAP is managed at a local level by 33 Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs), with support from local authorities. The programme is implemented nationally by 46 Local Development Companies (LDCs) across 51 areas.
A 10% increase was secured for the programme for 2022, the largest increase since the programme was launched, bringing the budget to €43 million. This represents a €4 million increase and provides for the creation of a significant number of job places for new community work on the ground in communities across the country.
An additional €5 million funding was announced to support the Local Development Companies through SICAP for the community response to support people arriving from Ukraine.
The department is undertaking an independent review of the current SICAP programme, as well as stakeholder consultation to inform the next programme iteration.
This is the National Volunteering Programme established by the Department of Rural and Community Development in 2021. Galway has established a team of 170 volunteers who can assist with once-off community events and festivals, and are also prepared for any future local emergencies. To date the volunteers have assisted at numerous cultural events, and have also assisted Galway City Council in the Ukraine Rest Hub that needed to be created at short notice in May.
Bounce Bank Recycling (BBR) is a recycling service supported under Strand 3 of the CSP which supports the employment of disadvantaged groups in particular, those most distant from the Labour Market.
Galway City Partnership was established in 1996 with a mission to: ‘tackle disadvantage and social exclusion, with a particular emphasis on those currently or in danger of becoming long-term unemployed’, and to ‘enhance our target groups capacity to contribute fully to their own and their communities sustainable development.’
GCP has developed a depth and breadth of experience working with marginalised communities and excluded individuals in the city. In responding to needs identified through consultation, active-listening and feedback GCP has developed a range of services to communities throughout the city.
Galway County Council, like all local authorities, have established and supported Community Response Forums. This was initially done in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions and currently it is being used as a model to provide a local response to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis. The Response Forum is a collaborative approach between key agencies and communities. It has been very valuable in terms of sharing information, identifying issues, and addressing them by working in partnership. Under the Ukrainian response, the PPN have reached out to local groups to assist where emergency accommodation was organised, and the SICAP Programme Implementer is working with community groups to implement initiatives to facilitate social integration of Ukrainian Nationals into their resident community activities and services.
Galway County PPN has 1,300 community groups that are registered as members.
The Galway Disability Forum was established in response to the feedback received when the Galway County PPN organised a Make Way Day event in September 2020 in conjunction with the Disability Federation of Ireland. Individuals with disabilities, carers, family members of persons with disabilities and those providing services for persons with disabilities constitute the Forum. The aim is to improve the lives of persons with disabilities residing in County Galway by driving real change on those issues of common interest and concern arising at our regular meetings.
Galway County PPN Advocate for Disability Housing needs on the relevant local Strategic Policy Committee.
The PPN is currently working on disability awareness in Galway- running information sessions in conjunction with ILMI:
Galway County PPN collaborated with Galway Roscommon ETB to provide the Five Ways to Wellbeing workshops for mental health.
We focus on capacity building for our member groups - through our various PPN training workshops. We are currently offering training on branding and PR for member groups.
€2 million funding was secured to design and implement a new programme aimed at specifically targeting area-based deprivation through a community development approach.
The Empowering Communities Programme (ECP) 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 (LCDC).
The ECP programme will focus on 14 small areas identified using the Pobal HP deprivation index which are experiencing significant disadvantage. The areas selected provide a broad geographic spread and the ECP programme will focus on these small areas as the target population for the intervention.
The ECP programme will fund a Community Engagement Worker in the relevant LDC.
The 14 small areas selected are in the following LCDC/Local Authority areas:
| Dublin City (4 areas) |
| South Dublin (1 area) |
| Kildare |
| Longford |
| Mayo |
| Wexford |
| Westmeath |
| Limerick City and County |
| Cork City |
| Galway |
| Donegal |
RSS is an income support initiative providing part-time employment opportunities in community and voluntary organisations for farmers or fishermen in receipt of certain social welfare payments and underemployed in their primary occupation.