2026-07-14

4. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht his plans to scale up the delivery of essential services through social enterprises; if he plans to invest in not-for-profit delivery of essential services through the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, particularly for the delivery of community childcare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53636/26]

As is always the case with my questions, this question is very straightforward. I ask the Minister of State to concentrate his remarks on the delivery of community childcare. I am interested in knowing what plans there are to scale up the delivery of essential services through the use of social enterprises.

I do not think it is as simple as the Deputy thinks but I thank her for the question. It is an important question. The provision of community childcare is very important. The Deputy and I probably share a view on the issue. As she will know, this does not necessarily fall under the remit of the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. I will come back to her again. I hope we will find common ground as we move forward. Social enterprises have a substantive role to play in furthering the objective of the Department, the Minister and me to build inclusive, sustainable and empowered communities right across Ireland. The current iteration of SICAP for the four-year period from 2024 to 2028 contains a revised key performance indicator for goal 1 that explicitly includes the provision of social enterprise supports, both financial and non-financial, as working towards the achievement of goal 1 objectives. This is in recognition of the important role that social enterprises can play in effecting change, working with SICAP target groups. In 2025, SICAP supported over 500 social enterprises through capacity-building supports and small-scale grants of up to €2,500. As Deputy O'Reilly will know, in July 2024, my Department launched Trading for Impact, the national social enterprise policy for a three-year period to conclude next year. This was developed in partnership with the social enterprise sector. Work is continuing to support and grow the sector through the strategy's stakeholder engagement group. Funding of €4 million was announced in 2025 under the Dormant Accounts Fund growing social enterprise scheme. A further €4 million was allocated this year to a sustaining social enterprise scheme, which will support social enterprises to become more financially self-sufficient. I hope to announce the successful awardees with the Minister later this year. SICAP's primary focus is the delivery of support to its 12 target groups and the provision of supports to strengthen the capabilities of organisations working with those target groups. The programme's broad parameters and wide-ranging supports have ensured that it has been and continues to be able to respond flexibly to that local need. However, while SICAP can provide some supports to community organisations and social enterprises, the programme is not designed for the direct delivery of services such as childcare.

Well, just design a programme that will do that because there is a really serious and pressing need for it. I will give the Minister of State an example. In the area known as Fingal, where my constituency is located, there are 63,000 children. Of those, 15,000 are living in poverty or are at risk of it. There are 800 community childcare places. I know from talking to the people on the community childcare committees that they are not hung up on any particular way to fund this. I am continuously struck by the capacity that exists within the social enterprise sector to do that really valuable work. The CSO statistics released in the last fortnight show that unemployment among women aged 35 to 44 has doubled. The rate is still low but it is increasing. There is a real need for affordable childcare. The Government does not seem to be getting any closer to delivering the €200 per week childcare it promised. The way to do it is to engage with social enterprises.

I understand where the Deputy is coming from. I genuinely do. Empower is the community childcare provider in her area. It does phenomenal work. As the Deputy knows, SICAP does not directly provide that community childcare place. I am meeting John Logue and Richard Bruton from Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland, SERI, next week to have a conversation with them in terms of this piece. I will pose the question in a rhetorical and adversarial way right now. What is the community childcare committee doing in the case of Fingal? I will just ask that question. If we look at the overarching scenario, to be fair to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Department of Social Protection and the Taoiseach and his Department, we are putting child poverty and its elimination and reduction at the heart of government. I was in Drogheda yesterday where I had a very profound conversation with women there in terms of the whole piece around childcare and poverty. The important point for us is that we are working in a whole-of-government way in assisting local communities in a variety of ways. I know the Deputy might disagree with me, which is fair enough. I get that we need to do more around childcare and particularly that community piece.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit.

Okay. I will come back again.

The Minister of State asked me what the community childcare committee in Fingal is doing. I will tell him that it is battling against the privatisation of childcare day in, day out. In our community centres, the vast majority - over 70% - are occupied by for-profit childcare providers. It is an area in which SERI has done fantastic work and has a lot to offer in this space. Unfortunately, when Mr. John Logue reached out to the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister, Deputy Foley, she did not come back to him. He wants to engage. I am absolutely delighted that the Minister of State is meeting with him next week and I hope he gets to discuss the issue of childcare because it is essential. There is so much more that can be done in the social enterprise space. There are areas in which the Government delivers services where profit has absolutely no place, home help being one of them and school meals provision being another. The profit motive does not lend itself well to the delivery of public services, but childcare is an area on which we could agree. There is definitely a need for it and there is definitely the appetite in SERI for it.

The important point is that there is a commitment by the Government. I share the Deputy's confidence in terms of the capacity of social enterprises to deliver. I will have that conversation next week, but it would be fair to say that we are seeing a co-ordinated response from the Government. We are tackling the key issues. There is a deficit in some places around the provision of community childcare places. In saying that, I do not agree with the Deputy in every respect. I do not share her view on the for-profit issue around home help, which was one example given by the Deputy. In my area of Cork city, home help is being provided by people through the HSE co-ordinator there. Phenomenal work is being done. I will talk to the Deputy again about it. We are committed to ensuring that people have access to childcare and community childcare places. I will talk to her ahead of my meeting next week with the two gentlemen in question. However, the important point is that, as the Deputy knows, we have done a census in the social enterprise space.

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit.

I will come back in again if I can.

No, the Minister of State is finished now.

Okay.