The Department introduced a range of supports to help community and voluntary organisations meet the challenges they faced during and after Covid-19. For instance, the Covid-19 stability fund supported 863 organisations in 2020 and 2021, with total funding of approximately €48.8 million. In 2020, €4.2 million was provided under the Covid-19 emergency fund which targeted help at groups participating in the Government's community call initiative. The community enhancement programme provides vital supports to assist l…

This year there was a significant increase in the town and village renewal scheme with €22 million allocated to it. With regard to the Deputy's point on the community activities fund being oversubscribed we do not know this yet. It may be happening at a local level. Over the coming month or two we will get feedback from the local authorities, which will tell us how many applications they have had. I suspect it will be oversubscribed. Later in the year we will look at the community enhancement programme, which is a …

My understanding is County Cork has the largest allocation of broadband connection points. There has been some exploration of how more might be got, perhaps through a private channel in the short term, before we develop additional support for it. The Deputy and I have been in touch about this. We have done a little bit of digging.

The RSS is an income support scheme providing part-time employment opportunities for farmers and fishers who are in receipt of specified social welfare payments and who are underemployed in their primary occupation. The scheme offers participants the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and provides valuable services to local rural communities. To qualify for RSS, a person must be actively farming or fishing and must satisfy the means test assessment required to qualify for the farm assist payment. During 2…

To briefly touch on Tús, there was quite a bit of leeway given during the Covid pandemic in terms of referrals and the consequences of not filling places. That is easing now. I refer to the operational forum that we are running in respect of CE and Tús where issues can be fed in. It is something that we have heard previously. I want to give the RSS a little time. It is an extremely important scheme. Its impact is not just the increased income for participants; there is the contribution that they make to the communi…

We will be reviewing the rural social scheme, RSS, this year and the six-year rule will be in the mix. Regarding Tús, my understanding is that the majority of places have been filled and it has been going well. Compared with community employment, CE, schemes, the rate at which places are being filled has been quicker. On Monday, I met RSS participants in Meath - perhaps it was some of the same people - who spoke highly of the scheme. One lady in particular who used to be an RSS participant is now managing the Slane…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I am familiar with the time Deputy Boyd Barrett described when he referenced events ten or 15 years ago. In a previous role, I assisted migrant workers in the construction industry to engage with the scope section and their employers. In my constituency, airline pilots have also faced that issue. As agreed by all Deputies this evening, the committee's report deals with a very important issue. Deliberate misclassification of a worker as a self-employed contractor in a sc…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The relevant legislation that allows for the removal of abandoned vessels in Irish waters such as that referred to by the Deputy is the Merchant Shipping (Salvage and Wreck) Act 1993. This Act gives effect to the International Convention on Salvage of 1989, to which Ireland is a signatory state. Section 40 of the Act provides that the Minister for Transport has the general superintendence of matters relating to wrecked or stranded vessels. The Act also sets out responsibi…

I thank the Deputy for the points he has raised. While the legislation in question that deals with salvage and wreck matters outlines roles and responsibilities for an appropriate authority, it does not specify provisions in relation to the costs associated with the removal of a wreck or the sale of that wreck. It is not possible when the owners of the vessel cannot be located, as has arisen in this instance. The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks of 2007 provides the legal basis for states t…

I thank both Deputies for their questions on this matter. Regarding the review carried out by NewERA, this is a requirement under the code of practice for the governance of State bodies. Within the first six months of each financial year, commercial State bodies, including the Shannon Group, are required to submit to their relevant Ministers a draft annual rolling five-year business and financial plan. Therefore, in May 2021, Shannon Group submitted financial forecasts, although, due to the uncertainty arising from…

The Deputies' message is clear and straightforward. I will convey it to the relevant Ministers. So far this year, to the end of last month almost 325,000 passengers used the airport. This is an 80% reduction on the same period in 2019, when approximately 1.7 million passengers used the airport. While passenger numbers remain suppressed, it is welcome to see that passenger numbers for last month were significantly up on the same period in 2020. There have been no transatlantic flights from Shannon since the onset of…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The LEADER programme has been in operation in Ireland for 30 years. To mark this anniversary, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, recently launched the national rural network booklet of LEADER case studies. Case studies are excellent examples of the impactful and innovative initiatives that the LEADER programme has delivered across Ireland in that period. In recent months, I have visited a range of projects and initiatives in communities across Ireland a…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue here today. The LEADER programme has been a very successful initiative for 30 years in Ireland. I am in no doubt that there is real value in the continued support for bottom-up locally-led initiatives that address the needs of communities all across the country and this is the hallmark of the LEADER approach. In fact, this direct link to local communities is also central to the mission of my Department and to Government's vision for rural Ireland, as outlined in Our Rural F…

I thank the Senators for their questions. The Government fully appreciates that the live performance sector, including pantomimes, is among the hardest hit by these latest restrictions. Indeed, these sectors were the first to close and the last to reopen, only as recently as 22 October. Unfortunately, the epidemiological situation is such that we are not where we expected to be and, as a result, last Friday, the Government had to announce further restrictions on the live performance sector, with capacities limited …

The Minister and her Department are currently examining the supports that were in place and have been engaging with stakeholders to determine what would work best to support the live entertainment industry going forward. She hopes to make an announcement on what schemes will be made available very soon and this will include a review of the pantomime scheme. I know the she will be as flexible and responsive as possible in supports for the sector. I particularly take the Senators' point regarding amateur, community a…

First, I wish to acknowledge the importance of community centres. They are the cornerstone of community life in many places around the country. As the Deputy is aware, a new capital fund for the upgrade of community centres featured in the national development plan and funding of €5 million has been secured for this under budget 2022. This is consistent with the programme for Government commitment to establish a small capital grants scheme for the maintenance, improvement and upkeep of community centres. The detail…

The Deputy is probably aware that in my own council area Fingal County Council got an allocation of €301,000 from the community activities fund. That needs to be allocated before the end of February but it can be spent until the end of August next year. That is a substantial amount. It is in the area of small grants but they have an impact as well. The criteria for the new programme are being worked on at the moment. We would be slow to make it exclusive because there are always unusual situations arising, even wit…

As the Deputy says, Fingal stands out as one of the better-off local authorities. There will be exceptions in other parts of the country as well. Community centres start up in a variety of different ways. They all have very different sorts of life paths with respect to how they started and how the initial funding became a reality as well. It is fair to say the majority of community centres around the country are not owned or run by a local authority. They have often come out of parish centres and are connected to s…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 59 and 68 together, for which I thank Deputies Colm Burke, Higgins and O'Dowd. I acknowledge the importance of community centres. They are the cornerstone of community life in many places around the country. My Department has a number of schemes that communities can avail of for the upkeep, enhancement or establishment of community centres. The Department provides small capital grants for the improvement of facilities through the community enhancement programme. The 2021 program…

On the final point raised by the Deputy, the broadband officer in the local authority is the person to chase up on that issue. I would like to reference some allocations in the Deputy's area under the community activities fund. A €9 million fund was announced recently, applications for which are open until February but the spending must be done by August next year. Cork City Council received an allocation of €307,000 and Cork County Council received an allocation of €312,000. Under the community enhancement program…