Minister Joe O’Brien announces additional funding of almost €1 million to support the community function of local authorities

• all 31 local authorities to benefit from Additional Staff Resource (ASR) funding
• funding will support the implementation and monitoring of Local Economic and Community Plans by local authorities

Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development Joe O’Brien has today announced an increase in funding of almost €1 million to local authorities to support their community functions. This additional funding will in particular support the work of the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) through Additional Staff Resource (ASR) payments.

The allocation of additional funding arises from a comprehensive review of the work of the LCDCs. The review found that since their creation, the LCDCs have been performing an ever expanding range of functions and there was a clearly evidenced need for continued funding to support them in delivering upon their core work. ASR funding has been provided annually to the local authorities since 2017 as a contribution towards their community functions, and in particular the staffing of the LCDCs.

Minister O’Brien said:

The LCDCs are responsible for co-ordinating, planning and overseeing local and community development funding and bringing a more joined-up approach to the running of local and community development programmes and interventions. The LCDCs are also responsible for the management and oversight of significant programmes such as the social inclusion programme (SICAP) and the LEADER Rural Development Programme, in some areas. This increase in funding for the ASR brings the total annual funding to €2.9 million. New allocations for each Local Authority for 2024 is set out below.

Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs), as created under the Local Government Reform Act, 2014, bring together local authority members and officials, state agencies, people actively working within local development and community development and economic, cultural and environmental organisations with a view to implementing a joined-up, cross-sectoral approach to local and community development programming through the medium of a Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP).

DRCD has strategic responsibility for the local and community development governance structures introduced on foot of the local government reform process, namely the LCDCs and LECPs. This involves supporting the operation of the LCDCs and the development and implementation of the LECPs on an ongoing basis. In this context, DRCD provides annual financial support to local authorities to support their community function, including the work of the LCDCs.

The Additional Staff Resource (ASR) funding has been provided annually to the local authorities since 2017 to support the community function. The current ASR funds over 60 staff positions with a total fund of €2.11 million in 2023.

Total ASR funding to the local authorities over the past five years, is set out in table below.

A comprehensive review of the ASR funding commenced in autumn 2022 and recently concluded.

The ASR review itself was a recommendation of the LCDC Review published in 2019. The Review found that the LCDCs were performing an expanding range of functions, and that there is a well evidenced need to continue the funding to local authorities, in some form, but recommended changes to the allocation model. The focus in designing a new model was on providing maximum flexibility to local authorities whilst keeping the administrative and reporting burden to a reasonable minimum.

Additional funding was secured for the community policy vote (which includes ASR funding) for 2024 and this will be reflected in the allocations.