14. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht his plans to reopen the shovel ready community centre scheme. [8050/26]

Sentiment score: 0.12

Will the Minister update the House on his plans to reopen the shovel-ready community centre scheme? This is a really important scheme for communities and it must be reopened.

Sentiment score: 0.14

I welcome the investment in existing community centres in order to refurbish them. A lot of them are just old and need investment. I support that but I am very disappointed by the Minister's lack of commitment to reopening the shovel-ready projects scheme that was there. I have a few examples. The Fairfield community association is operating out of a house it owns in Fairfield. It deals with hundreds of children and different groups. It is an area that has been promised a community centre for 30 years. The volunteers are doing Trojan work. They have done a site survey and put plans together but their real fear, and my fear, is that when they are ready to go, the funding will not be available for this project. These are volunteers. Where is the support? There is one other thing I will ask the Minister to really take on board. Should we have supports to help communities because these are volunteers putting these plans together? I refer to, maybe, a one-stop shop where communities can come together when planning for their centres, whether it is meeting new specifications or delivering new centres. Communities need support.

Sentiment score: 0.07

The Minister is expecting volunteers who work with kids in the community to be planners, engineers, administrators or negotiators. If they are trying to get a project over the line, it all falls on the volunteers. We have another situation in St. Joseph's Community Centre in Mayfield. That has now passed planning so this will bring a state-of-the-art library and community centre to Mayfield but there is no funding there for it. It lost out on the library capital programme, so there is no funding and now the shovel-ready projects scheme is closed. Where does St. Joseph's Community Centre in Mayfield and its library go? It is at risk of its planning running out before the money becomes available. I am not trying to be political here but the facts are that places like Fairfield and Mayfield have been underinvested in. They feel forgotten about. Will the Minister give a commitment to both Fairfield and St. Joseph's that the funding will be available when they are ready?

Sentiment score: -0.04