Rural Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Thomas Gould (SF), Cork North-Central

I welcome the investment in existing community centres in order to refurbish them. A lot of them are just old and need investment. I support that but I am very disappointed by the Minister's lack of commitment to reopening the shovel-ready projects scheme that was there. I have a few examples. The Fairfield community association is operating out of a house it owns in Fairfield. It deals with hundreds of children and different groups. It is an area that has been promised a community centre for 30 years. The volunteers are doing Trojan work. They have done a site survey and put plans together but their real fear, and my fear, is that when they are ready to go, the funding will not be available for this project. These are volunteers. Where is the support? There is one other thing I will ask the Minister to really take on board. Should we have supports to help communities because these are volunteers putting these plans together? I refer to, maybe, a one-stop shop where communities can come together when planning for their centres, whether it is meeting new specifications or delivering new centres. Communities need support.

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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