Ó An Roinn Forbartha Tuaithe agus Pobail
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Joe O’Brien, Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Social Protection, today (Monday, 10 October) officially visited a number of community initiatives in Limerick.
Commencing the 2-day event in Limerick, the Minister was interviewed by the Joe Nash Show, Limerick 95FM to discuss his visit to Limerick and his visits to community projects that are funded by his department.
Moving onto Limerick City and County Council, he was welcomed by officials from the Local Authority and met with the Ukrainian Community Response Forum who are providing local supports to help people arriving from Ukraine to settle into their new communities.
Minister O’Brien said:
“It’s great to hear how the communities here in Limerick have been pro-active in supporting people arriving from Ukraine and helping to make Ireland, their home away from home. It is particularly significant today on World Inclusion Day, a day dedicated to ensuring that individuals of various abilities, backgrounds, ages, races, religions, genders, and other characteristics are accepted, welcomed, and treated fairly. A sense of belonging is very important and I know right across the country, lots of different flags are flying in towns to celebrate world inclusion day and recognising the different nationalities living in our communities, showing the sense of belonging and an inclusive society."
Minister O’Brien continued to the Southill Hub, a vibrant community centre in the heart of O’Malley Park and met with representatives of the Limerick Traveller Network and The Exchange House Ireland Mental Health Network. This energetic Hub receives funding from the government’s social inclusion programme, SICAP and the Community Services Programme (CSP) and here he met the workers involved in organising upcoming community events and get-togethers. Today is World Mental Health Day and Minister O’Brien met with the team who are busy organising a sequence of fun events, taking place this week as part of National Mental Health Awareness week.
During his visit, Minister O’Brien met with Allen Meagher, editor of Community Ireland magazine, a social enterprise in Moyross, giving employment to local people and promoting community development.
Continuing to the Strand Hotel, he attended a focus group meeting of relevant stakeholders to discuss working together collaboratively to increase participation by Travellers, Roma and members of other minority groups on employment schemes.
The Minister also visited the offices of PAUL Partnership, West Limerick Resources and Ballyhoura Development, where he met with staff involved in delivering programmes funded by his department and heard of the great impact programmes like SICAP, CSP, CE, Tús and RSS are having on communities across Limerick.
Speaking about his visit to Limerick, Minister O’Brien said:
“It is great to visit Limerick 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 at local level. 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 Limerick 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.”
CSP supports over 430 community-based organisations to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model, including the provision of places, spaces and facilities.
CSP funding is provided to these community organisations as a fixed contribution towards the cost of employing an agreed number of full-time equivalent positions (FTEs) and a manager, where warranted.
The CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts, rather it is a fixed annual contribution towards the overall cost of the employees.
The department currently provides an annual co-funding contribution of €19,033 for each FTE position and €32,000 for each manager position.
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 DRCD 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.
Community Response Fora are now in place in each local authority area, chaired by the Chief Executive, to coordinate the community-led response in the provision of assistance and support to Ukrainian refugees as they are accommodated around the country. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has provided additional funding to local authorities to assist them to respond at local level and to provide additional staff resources.
Through the efforts of local volunteers, community workers, public bodies and private sector contributions many recent arrivals are being supported with basic needs such as clothing, access to the internet, transport, English classes and information on how to access local services such childcare, healthcare and education.
Officials from DRCD and DHLGH meet regularly with nominees from the Community Response Fora to provide support and hear any issues emerging.
Officials from DRCD also attend a weekly Humanitarian Senior Officials Group, providing feedback from the C&V Sector and working to address issues as they arise.
DRCD has approved an additional €10.5 million towards the Ukraine response. This funding is being provided via (1) LCDCs for the SICAP Programme, (2) co-funding of Community Foundation Ireland supports to voluntary organisations, and (3) funding to Volunteers Ireland.
DRCD is encouraging the Community Response Fora to avail of underutilised community vehicles to provide flexible community transport services to meet the needs of the Ukrainian community.
The CE scheme is designed to help people who are long-term unemployed (or otherwise disadvantaged) to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities.
Tús scheme is an employment support measures for long-term unemployed people and other people in receipt of long-term payments from the Department of Social Protection.
The scheme employ participants to deliver a range of services to local communities throughout the country. These include local amenities management, environmental projects, arts and culture, sports, childcare, TidyTowns, health-related services, meals on wheels and drug rehabilitation schemes.
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.