Community Development Projects
Dail Éireann — 2023-04-25
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Thomas Gould (SF), Cork North-Central

As the Minister herself has just recognised, community centres are the heart of communities. They are a safe place, a great meeting place, a place where people can come together to build their community. A lot of places, however, do not have community centres and, as a result, suffer. In my constituency, the area of Ballyvolane does not have a community centre. It has hundreds of houses, and hundreds more are planned, but there is no community centre and the community has lost out in a major way over the years and will continue to lose out unless a community centre is built.
Also, there is Riverstown Community Centre, which does great work, but Glanmire is in a community with thousands of people and is constantly growing. It needs an all-purpose community centre built. Like Ballyvolane, Glanmire has been at a loss for years and badly needs a community centre now. We saw during the Celtic tiger how communities were let down by bad planning and lack of infrastructure and facilities. As a result, communities missed out and lost out. Is the Department now looking at new housing developments to ensure that community centres are at the core at a strategic level? On top of that there are areas such as Bishopstown in Cork, where the community centre is not fit for purpose. There is a derelict sign up there. All they need is the funding, so I welcome what the Minister said. Also, areas like Blarney need funding. I will be talking to all the people involved over the next few days to ensure they take advantage of the funds the Minister said are there.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-04-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-04-25