COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, January 11, 2010

QUESTION NO.3

QUESTION: Councillor S. Crowe

To ask the manager is he aware of any Community Development Projects in the local Authority  area effected by  negative financial changes in the recent budget and can he give a report on how these changes are impacting on these groups.

REPLY:

The aim of the new Local and Community Development Programme as announced by the Minister is to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement  between Government and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities.  This will be underpinned by four high-level goals which are: to promote awareness, knowledge and uptake of a wide range of statutory, voluntary and community services; to increase access to formal and informal educational, recreational and cultural development activities and resources; to increase peoples’ work readiness and employment prospects; and to promote engagement with policy, practice and decision making processes on matters affecting local communities.

In announcing €67.5m for the new Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) the Minister indicated that the programme will provide more efficient and streamlined social inclusion services to those people in the country who need them most. This new programme supersedes the Department’s current two main social inclusion/community development programmes – The Local Development Social Inclusion Programme (LDSIP) and the Community Development Programme, which will come to an end on 31 December 2009.

The new Programme is designed to preserve elements of good practice from the existing CDP/LDSIP Programmes and will serve those who need them much more effectively. It will have enhanced monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, ensuring that services are more streamlined, by minimising structures and co-ordinated planning.

The projects that have been advised they will no longer receive funding in South Dublin County area are:

North Clondalkin CDP in North Clondalkin

The Dolcain Project in South West Clondalkin

Equal Access CDP (formerly the Special Project for the Longterm Unemployed) in West Tallaght

West Tallaght Resource Centre in West Tallaght

In addition Quarryvale House CDP in North Clondalkin  ceased in 2009.

It is understood that a number of the groups notified of the cessation of funding under the new programme have appealed the decision. It is intended that the roles will pass in some way to the Area Partnerships but the detail regarding this is not yet available.