Community grants scheme is ‘totally wrong’ – Councillor

By Maurice Garvey

COMMUNITY groups can apply for a Department of Housing Communities Facilities Scheme grant, with up to €1k offered per project.

In March, Minister of State Catherine Byrne TD announced a new €2 million capital grants scheme. The scheme is focused on providing smallscale capital grants to grass roots community groups or organisations.

However, Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan blasted the distribution of the funds as “totally wrong” with the Minister allocating just €64,500 under the scheme to Dublin City Council.

“Each county gets the same amount, so Dublin gets the same as Leitrim,” said Cllr Doolan.

“It’s a new policy when they (government) release funds to spread it around the local authorities. Either it is lazy or they don’t want to acknowledge that Dublin has greater needs.

“The challenges in Leitrim are not the same as they are in Dublin. It will cost as much in administration costs for Dublin as it will for the actual fund.”

Regardless of the disparity in funding, Cllr Doolan encourages community groups to apply for the scheme.

The scheme in Dublin City is being administered by the Dublin City Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) and Dublin City Council.

Deadline for applications by post is Friday, June 30.

The full amount of the grant must be spent by September 30, 2018 or else returned to the Department via Dublin City Council.

The Dublin City Community Facilities Scheme application form can be obtained at www.dublincity.ie/lcdc.