2026-03-26

5. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the measures in place to ensure equitable distribution of funding across regions, including areas experiencing rapid population growth; and whether any formal methodology is used to align funding allocations with demographic need. [23002/26]

How can the Minister of State ensure that funding from his Department is shared fairly across regions, especially in areas of major population growth? Is there any clear formula for matching that funding to population growth? I ask this with particular reference to Midleton and Carrigtwohill where major population increases are projected over the next decade, but where local amenities are plainly not keeping pace. By 2034, the population of Midleton is expected to grow by 100% from where it was in 2022, while the estimate for Carrigtohill is in the region of 172% in that 12 years. That is a doubling and almost tripling of the population of those two towns.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. He is right that there is a complete need for clarity and certainty around the issue of funding. The community and voluntary sector is quite diverse and receives, as he said, financial support from a wide variety of Government agencies, including our Department. The Deputy has highlighted a growth population projection of Midleton and Carrigtohill, and it is important that from a whole-of-government perspective; while working with local authorities, we get it right. That is going to be the next big part of Cork that is growing. The Government strategy to support the community and voluntary sector, Sustainable, Inclusively and Empowered communities, published in 2019, sets out a long-term vision for communities in Ireland and provides a strategic framework across government for engaging with the sector, as well as support for a range of programmes and initiatives. It included a commitment to promote multi-annual funding for community and voluntary organisations. Our Government is currently developing a successor strategy that will build upon the achievements, structures and programmes established under the previous strategy, while also responding to new challenges and contexts. Across the community development area of our Department, funding of €260 million has been provided this year, consistent with that commitment and the strategy for the community and voluntary sector. The most significant funding programmes provide support on a multi-annual basis, including the social inclusion community activation programme and the scheme to support national organisations. Some €74 million is being allocated to the SICAP and other social inclusion supports this year, which also includes €12 million in support for community integration work, helping to support new arrivals into our country. The community service programme also supports 426 community-based organisations with a budget of €59.4 million last year to provide services through the social enterprise model. Our Department will continue to work with the Deputy and all stakeholders, including community and voluntary and representative organisations and local development companies, to provide sustained financial support to community organisations throughout the country. The Deputy’s points are well made.

What people see in towns like Midleton and Carrigtohill is residential development moving ahead much faster than amenity provision. New houses are being built at pace and more families are moving in, but the facilities which are core to community life are lagging badly behind. There is a sense that many families describe of being in a town that is thriving but impoverished in respect of the most basic communities that matter families on a daily basis, such as youth facilities, playgrounds and skate parks. Does the Minister of State accept that if funding is not systematically matched to population growth this is exactly what happens? We get housing estate after housing estate but not the facilities needed to build a connected community. We get long, frustrating drives to other towns or even villages to have basic community needs met. In Midleton, for instance, we drive to Mogeely to use the playground. Can the Minister of State say his Department has any clear way of matching funding to population growth so that we have a predictable, systematic spread of amenities or will our towns and villages still be left to fend for themselves through piecemeal schemes?

We as a Department and Government are committed to funding and working on a variety of schemes, whether through the community central investment fund which the Minister, Deputy Calleary is announcing a call later today on, or as we have done in the past, with the community recognition fund. The Deputy referenced the issue of the playground. We have the very proactive outdoor recreation investment scheme as well as the town and village renewal scheme and the rural regeneration and development fund. We work as a Department with Cork County Council but also with Avondhu Blackwater and the SICAP in developing the piece the Deputy referenced. The key point for us is that it is about ensuring the allocation of funding delivers. Last year we provided almost €12 million in financial support for Cork and I can give the examples of MyPlace Midleton and the Cork Cloyne Diocesan youth services, and I can quote a myriad of other examples as the Deputy knows quite well. His point is that we must ensure that at the very heart of what we do is people, place and giving people that sense of buy-in to their local community. It is about ensuring we work collaboratively to develop not just housing estates, which are very important and necessary, but a community where people can put down roots. We can have the piece the Deputy referenced coming off that as well.

Under the current disjointed system, families are having to spend years campaigning for basic amenities. They are being forced to become fundraisers, social entrepreneurs and project managers trying to patch together one disconnected grant after another while their town or village expands around them, and their children often outgrow the project before it is finally delivered, as in the case of playgrounds. That is not a serious way to provide basic amenities. Like so much about public service delivery, it is not fair, strategic or timely. These amenities need to be planned as part of the development of a town or village. In towns like Midleton and Carrigtohill, housing and population are growing quickly but local provision is lagging far behind. Does the Minister of State accept that the stop-start piecemeal approach is not working? Will he commit to a clearer, fairer system - a more integrated way of funding in order that when population growth is projected, the amenities needed for community life are planned in line with it and not dependent on the remarkable innovation and drive of particular community groups?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. There is no doubt that it takes local action groups to work and get things moving, but there is a county development plan as we know well that sets out the blueprint and roadmap for investment. Everything the Deputy has spoken about this morning in terms of provision of playgrounds, community centres, you name it, the Minister, Deputy Calleary and I are very committed to. We have met with a variety of organisations in terms of demographics and projecting future needs and is critically important that we as a Department and as a Government continue to invest. That is why we have programmes such as CLÁR, LEADER and the community centres investment fund, CCIF. I make the point that it is incumbent on the local authority as the lead agency on the ground working with the development companies to deliver and put in place that blueprint and road map. As I said in reply to Deputy Rice earlier, I got involved in politics because we had no library in Bishopstown. There will always be local activism but leadership needs to be provided by the local authority and Government. In our case, we are providing the funding and working with the council. I look forward to continuing to work with the Deputy in delivering because he is right that Carrigtohill and Midleton are pivotal to the development and growth of our county.