Community Development Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

I thank the Minister of State for his response. The purpose of the question was to try to isolate those specific funding streams separate from grants that will contribute towards the physical running. The Minister of State is right that they are in the main run by volunteer boards. However, they are employers as well. It makes things very tricky. There have been welcome increases in the minimum wage. That has a knock-on consequence for other people who are working. Costs like energy in particular are rising. What we saw in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and Storm Chandra was how badly exposed some, although not all, community centres were. They are a bit of a beacon in the community. People think when everything is gone they will head to the community centre and it is like a hub. In some instances, they were not sufficiently staffed to be able to respond. They are now having to cope with the energy bills. There is a huge increase in energy. The money available is not matching that level of increase.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05