Men's Sheds

8. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht to clarify recent difficulties surrounding the funding of men's sheds. [67464/26]

I thank the Deputy. Before Deputy McAuliffe leaves, I thank him because he brought many issues to myself and the Minister, Deputy Calleary, in the budget talks which were very beneficial. I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for his advocacy and support for men's sheds. As he knows, the Minister, myself and our Department are very supportive of men’s sheds and recognise their valuable contribution across communities, in Cork city in particular, which both the Deputy and I represent. They provide safe, inclusive spaces for men of all ages and get men talking, moving and doing things. Our Department provides funding to men's sheds under a variety of funding supports, including the local enhancement programme, LEP, SICAP and the LEADER programme. Since 2018, over €2.7 million has been allocated to men's sheds through the LEP for building upgrades and equipment. Our Department has also provided funding directly to the Irish Men's Shed Association under the scheme to support national organisations, SSNO. The current iteration of this scheme commenced in July of this year with total funding of €297,766 being provided to the Irish Men's Shed Association for the period of the current scheme, which will run until the end of 2029. Since 2022, our Department has provided over €2.3 million in direct funding. As announced last week, we have secured funding to continue support for both men's sheds and women's sheds in the budget. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, and I have met and held positive, productive discussions with the Irish Men's Shed Association in September. Our officials have met numerous times since then to discuss proposals on the next iteration of the scheme. I assure the Deputy that we are, as Ministers, committed to the work of the Irish men's sheds. We value them and recognise there are challenges in the current distribution model that have been identified. We are working to find a solution to them.

I have met the Minister of State at countless events during the past seven years since I was elected a TD where men's sheds were at the centre, such as a ceremony, for example, at Mayfield Men's Shed, which is probably one of the more active ones not only in the county of Cork but in the country. They and their counterparts in the Glanmire, Churchfield and Glounthaune men's sheds - the list is endless - do great work. I know both the Minister and the Minister of State recognise that and the serious health benefits and the fact they keep older people, in particular, active. There is the work they do to help communities, Tidy Towns, etc. We do not need to reiterate that this morning. The Minister of State mentioned the distribution model and that attempts are being made to overhaul that. Over the past few months much would have been said, publicly and privately, about the difficulties that were there. Will the Minister of State give some reassurance that distribution model will be worked on, hopefully by the time Christmas comes round, so people receive certainty that funding will be allocated before Christmas?

The Deputy is right that the men's sheds are an exemplary model. I will make one fundamental point. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, and I are very committed to working with the Irish Men's Sheds Association, which has identified a number of issues around distribution being cumbersome and burdensome. What we are committed to doing is to make it more streamlined and effective to work with them. That is why the Minister and I met representatives of the Irish Men's Sheds Association in September. We had a very good, positive meeting. As a consequences of that, our officials and the Irish Men's Sheds Association met on three separate occasions. We are all committed to working together, le chéile, to ensure we have a model of delivery that does not just recognise but provides certainty and values, which we do, the work of the Irish Men's Sheds Association on the ground locally. The Deputy is right, there are a myriad of attributes men's sheds bring to communities we could list. The bottom line is that we are fundamentally 100% committed to working with the Irish Men's Sheds Association.

The Minister of State has recognised that funding will be provided. What men's sheds members who are listening out there this morning would like to know is whether that will happen this side of Christmas or into the new year. Can the Minister of State give any clarity as to how long they will be waiting? I welcome the fact that the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Calleary, have personally met them. That is very important. Do they envisage they will have to meet them again or do they think the outstanding issues that were there regarding the redistribution of money have been largely resolved? Is there likely to be some recompense for the gap period between funding, where funding might have fallen short during that period?

I will make another point. I met with Carrigaline and Togher men's sheds this week and last week. We understand that what we must do is have an approach that is fair and is based upon a future mechanism of funding which must be balanced by reducing that administrative burden on the Irish Men's Sheds, particularly at local level. We have to have a fair, transparent and accountable model of public funding. We will meet with the Irish Men's Sheds Association again. We had a very positive meeting with them. The engagement was very good. There has been a lot of work done since. I am confident we will have a mechanism in place. In the context of the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and I there is an open door policy. We are not in an ivory tower or silo with an adversarial mentality. We have made huge progress. What we want to do is to continue to support and work with the Irish Men's Sheds Association nationally and with the groups locally. The Deputy mentioned the groups in his constituency. I have some in Cork and met with two of them recently, as I said. We look forward to working to ensure their sustainability, certainty and stability in the funding model going forward.