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The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, has today announced funding of over €12.5 million for the upgrade and development of almost 600 Community Centres nationwide.
The new Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) will support groups in every county to carry out refurbishments and improvements of their local community facility.
Grants of up to €25,000 will be provided to almost 600 groups in both rural and urban communities.
The funding will see improvements to community centres, GAA clubs, parish halls, youth centres, men’s sheds and facilities used by our elderly.
The Community Centre Investment Fund is a new scheme introduced by Minister Humphreys and represents the largest single investment in community centres in decades. Today’s announcement of Category 1 projects will be followed by further funding announcements for larger scale projects in the coming weeks.
Among the capital works that will be carried out include:
Minister Humphreys announced the funding during a visit to the Fettercairn Community and Youth Centre in Tallaght, which received Category 1 Funding.
Making the announcement, Minister Humphreys said:
“The local Community Centre is at the heart of our towns, villages and parishes all across this country. They come in many different shapes and sizes and are a place for people of all ages to meet up and socialise with friends, old and new. I want to support these great local facilities and that’s why I launched the new Community Centre Investment Fund earlier this year. The level of interest has been unprecedented under any scheme previously ran by the Department of Rural and Community Development. I am delighted today to announce over €12.5 million in funding for almost 600 projects nationwide. This funding will support Community Centres, Parish Halls, GAA Clubhouses, Youth Facilities, Men’s Sheds and much more. I want to congratulate all of the successful groups who are receiving funding, which I know will benefit local communities for years to come. This particular strand of funding focused on small scale grants of up to €25,000. I am pleased to confirm that I will be announcing grants for larger scale projects later this year.
Examples of some of the successful applicants announced today include:
Also welcoming the funding, Minister of State Joe O’Brien said:
“I spend a significant amount of my time out and about visiting community groups throughout Ireland and I see first-hand the importance of community centres - that shared community space where people can gather to support each other, to work, to socialise, and to help to continue to develop their local community. There has been huge interest in the fund which has received a large number of applications and the increased funding we have secured in the Budget will ensure that the new fund has the biggest impact possible in local communities nationwide.”
Funding will be available under 3 Categories, with grants up to €300,000 available:
Funding is available for capital works such as:
The fund closed to applications on 14 July. The appraisal process for Categories 2 and 3 is currently ongoing.
Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for rural Ireland for the period 2021-2025. It represents a new milestone in the approach to rural development policy for Ireland and adopts a more strategic, ambitious and holistic approach to investing in and maximising opportunities for rural areas.