COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 11, 2019

MOTION NO. 15

MOTION: Councillor F. Timmons

That this council commends the work and value of community centres within our county and throughout the communities they serve.

We commit to writing to the Minister to request that Pobal Funding is looked and the rates paid are brought in line with the Living wage so that the wages reflect the invaluable community work staff do in delivering groups and other responsibilities , in particular working with vulnerable people and to ensure that community centres can compete in the Job market when retaining and recruiting staff.

We also ask SDCC to look how community centres are funded and staffed in our County Council and to investigate models used in other Councils and report back to council on this. We also request that SDCC continue to look at all ways to support this invaluable work and look at expanding community centres as hubs of our community and to keep this council updated.

REPORT:

South Dublin County is well served by a large network of community facilities covering the vast majority of the main neighbourhoods in the County with provision in the Council's Three-Year Capital Programme 2019-2021 to fund additional facilities where appropriate in the coming years.  The majority of the existing community facilities in the County are built on Council owned land and are usually managed by independent local voluntary management companies (legal companies in their own right, independent of the Council and established as Companies Limited by Guarantee) under management licences provided by the Council. 

The management companies utilise a wide range of funding opportunities and supports on offer from a broad range of sources including from the Council and some central government departments to supplement locally generated funds in order to meet the running costs of the facilities. This approach is generally in line with the manner in which community facilities are operated in other local authority areas.  However, if there are alternative funding methods proposed, the Social, Community & Equality SPC can explore the appropriateness of the current support and funding model for community centres.

A number of years ago the then Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs announced a Community Services Programme (CSP), administered by Pobal, which provided the opportunity for community centre management companies to apply for funding to assist with the costs of employing a number of staff - this funding was quite limited and only a small number of community centres could be supported.  A competition was held in the County, facilitated by the Tallaght and Clondalkin Partnerships with some six community centres successfully acquiring funding. The funding allocated under CSP provided crucial support to those community centres in the subsequent years but there have only been extremely minimal opportunities for further funding for additional centres under the scheme since then, generally arising when other centres or projects exited the scheme.

The setting of staff salaries and wages in local community centres are a matter for the relevant management companies employing those staff working in the community facilities with local community officers on hand to provide advice. Management companies are always strongly advised to ensure that appropriate pay scales and salaries are adopted to reflect the duties and roles of the staff in the centres.

The Council's Community Services Department is constantly available to advise, assist and support the management companies of all centres in the County as well as recognising the commendable efforts and volunteerism in managing community centres to support delivery of a wide range of community activities and services for local residents.