A new €10 million fund to support thousands of local community & voluntary groups with their energy bills was launched last Friday, which will help to support parish halls, community centres, local development associations, social clubs, ICA groups, senior citizen groups, Men’s Sheds, Women’s Sheds and much more.
The Community Support Fund has been devised to support groups with their energy costs who may not have been deemed eligible under previous Government schemes, providing small grants to a wide and diverse range of local community groups to assist with their running costs.
These include groups that operate from parish halls and who need support with running costs such as energy or insurance bills.
Groups can also use the funding to carry out small upgrade works and to purchase equipment to support their activities such as laptops and printers, lawnmowers, training equipment, etc.
The once-off fund will be allocated under the Department’s Community Enhancement Programme and will be administered locally by the Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs). The funding has been allocated by providing a baseline amount to each area and allocating the remainder based on the population and disadvantage level in each local authority area. In County Cork, €362,678 has been allocated for the scheme for distribution, Limerick will receive €350,592, Tipperary €338,885 and Waterford €320,195.
This funding, announced by Heather Humphreys TD and Minister of State, Joe O’Brien TD, builds on the earlier announcement of the €10M Community and Voluntary Energy Support Scheme (CVESS).
Groups should contact their LCDC for further details of the fund. LCDC numbers of relevance in The Avondhu catchment area are: Cork County 021-4276891; Limerick 061-556000; Tipperary 0818-06-5000 and Waterford 0818-10-2020.
