Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 December 2022
17. Deputy Kieran O'Donnell asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development when she will announce the successful applicants under the community and voluntary energy support scheme, CVESS; if the full list of successful projects is available by county; when payments will start to issue to organisations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62795/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI commend the Minister on the CVESS, of which six organisations in Limerick have availed. I acknowledge in particular Caherconlish Community Centre Council, St. Mary's Community Adult Education Group and the Garryowen Community Development Project in that regard. The scheme will be open until 20 January this year. Is there a plan to encourage communities and groups in Limerick and north Tipperary to apply? Where can they go to apply for the scheme? What has been the take-up to date?
I will keep my reply short and informal because we are under time pressure. I will try to answer the Deputy's questions as best I can. By visiting the Pobal website is the short answer to the Deputy's question about how groups can apply for the scheme. I also bring to the attention of other organisations that may not qualify under CVESS that Limerick City and County Council would have received an allocation of approximately €250,000, which will be run through the local community development committees, LCDCs. That money will be available for smaller community groups. We hope that by reopening the CVESS and the community support scheme through the LCDCs, we will have captured everyone. If groups are falling between the cracks, we would like to know about it. Pobal is the main stop for the CVESS and we have tweaked it to make it more doable for individual organisations that would have a large amount of facilities across a county. When it was introduced, the scheme was not efficient enough for them, but now that we have tweaked the administrative process and reopened the scheme for applications until 20 January, it should make it more doable for people to apply.
May I come in? I thank my colleagues on the Opposition benches and wish everybody a happy Christmas. We will see what happens on Saturday. I thank the members of the Opposition. We have had good, constructive debates on issues relating to the Departments of Social Protection and Rural and Community Development. I thank them.
