COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, March 25, 2024

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: Councillor K. Mahon

To ask the manager to update, with regard to the Tallaght area, on the assessment undertaken by the council of community facilities? Cllr Kieran Mahon

REPLY:

Following on from the review of community centre governance, operations and funding in 2022, where a survey was conducted to gain input from all community centre Boards of Management throughout the County, the new Community Centre Management Support Fund was launched in December 2022. The Management Support Fund provides all multi-purpose community centres in the County the opportunity to apply for an annual financial support to assist with: ongoing centre running costs, employment and training costs, and the costs associated with organised local community events.

Building on from the Management Support Fund of 2022, the 2023 Management Support Fund again offered the same funding opportunities (€750,000 of funding awarded to 32 community centres as noted at the February 2024 Council Meeting) while in addition and as a funding eligibility criteria, all BOMs were requested to attend a series of governance training workshops focusing on: Introduction to Governance, Community Centre Finances and Community Centre Human Resources. The workshops were conducted by Governance Ireland and feedback coming from all attendees was extremely positive.

The Community Services Department also continues to encourage all community centre BOMs, to examine and develop Online Booking Systems for their respective community centres. Community Services, through Sportskey, have rolled out the opportunity for all BOMs to gain advice, training and assistance to help establish the online booking system and as part of the 2023 Management Support Fund criteria all BOMs were also asked to commit to at least engage with Sportskey to examine the benefits an online booking system may bring for the administration and operations of their community centres. Feedback again has been largely positive with a large number of community centres having signed up to establishing online booking systems.

The local Community Development Teams are also available to assist and provide targeted governance and skills development support to any individual community centre BOM who may need assistance to help address specific issues as they arise.