Departmental Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
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Paul McAuliffe (FF), Dublin North-West

I welcome the efforts of the Minister and the Minister of State. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, has responsibility for SICAP, which does fantastic work in disadvantaged areas. However, funding for infrastructure is also incredibly important. Often, by changing the physical landscape of an environment, you can bring real change to those communities. We should be working in partnership with, for example, the local community safety partnerships, the SICAP partners, the local community development committees, LCDCs, and the providers of the range of other grants that are coming into the communities for which people can apply. There needs to be a degree of co-ordination.
I also welcome the fact that there will be an evidence base for this. That will ensure the communities that are really in need get these supports. It will mean we will be advocating for other communities that are on the edge to also be included. I say with some certainty that some of the communities in my constituency that are in that category will be on that list. Both the Minister and the Minister of State are welcome to my constituency to launch the scheme when it is done. That is an open invitation. I say that in the expectation that there may be communities nearby or elsewhere that will not be included. We have to go further than €5 million. We must go to €10 million and €15 million over successive budgets. I wish the Minister and the Minister of State the best of luck. They are both great champions of this project.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21