Council tackled refugee and Covid crises with 'great skill'

 The councillors praised the excellent work of the Community and Culture Section of Offaly County Council during the June meeting of Birr Municipal District, pointing out that they had handled the Covid and Ukrainian refugee crises with "great skill."

Ann Dillon from the Section gave the councillors an update on the Community and Culture Section's work. As she spoke it became obvious that the Section is handling a big load of work.

Ann said the Section supports the work of the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC).

She said the Section is delivering a Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) which is devoted to Community and Economic development.

The Section uses interagency resources to build the capacity of Offaly communities to plan and deliver local projects and services.

It also supports rural enterprises, rural development and job creation through LEADER.

It targets socially excluded individuals and communities through SICAP (Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme).

It provides project funding through a Community Enhancement Programme and other grants, in a number of areas including Social Enterprise, and Disability Supports.

The Section also facilitates the Traveller Interagency Group; implements the new Local Sports Strategy; is working on a new Age Friendly Strategy for the county; is involved in a Migrant Integration Working Group; and it's delivering the Arts Programme and Music Generation.

Ann pointed out that during the period 2016 to 2020 over €6.5 million was invested in over 262 community and private enterprise projects throughout Offaly.

A Transitional LEADER Programme began in April 2021 to bridge the gap between the EU programming periods. One of the main objectives of the Transitional Programme is to help communities that have not previously benefited from LEADER funding, to build their capacity in preparation for the next programming period and ensure weaker communities are not left behind. The total Transitional LEADER Programme Project allocation for Offaly is €1.7 million and all project approvals are required by the 31st of December 2022.

Ann said SICAP provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion through local engagement and partnerships between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies. The SICAP programme aims to address high and persistent levels of deprivation and to target and support those who are disadvantaged, hardest to reach and less likely to use mainstream services.

Up to last December Offaly SICAP provided the following supports: Over 11,000 interventions with clients; 4,100 children engaged in projects; 209 community groups have been supported; Over 1,300 people accessed training; 153 people progressed to self-employment.

Cllr John Carroll warmly praised Ann Dillon and everyone in the Community and Culture Section. “Ann has given us an excellent report about the Section's activities,” he commented. “It's obvious that it is an extremely busy Section in the County and is being assigned to tackle major crises when they arise such as the Covid crisis and the Ukraine crisis.” Cllr Carroll said he and Cllr Clare Claffey are on the board of Birr OEC, which has been operating as a short-term, transitional provider of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees over the last three months.

Cllr John Leahy said he is on the Local Community Development Committee. “The LCDC is doing a huge amount of work,” he remarked. “We finished in the top ten LCDCs in Ireland last year. We also got extra funding which brought an extra €500,000 into the Community and Culture Section. The Community and Culture Section just keeps on growing and growing. It handled the pandemic and it's handling the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Unfortunately the crises keep coming and we are now facing the cost of living crisis.”

Cllr Leahy added that SICAP is a great programme which does a lot of vital work.

He pointed out that there is not as much media focus on Ukraine now as there was back in March, but the war is still raging and the suffering is horrendous. "We all need to keep switched on about it. We cannot switch off from the fact that Ukrainian refugees badly need our help and we should do whatever we can to help them. Donations of clothes and food are still needed from the members of the public for the refugees.

“Thanks also to the Community and Culture Section there was essential funding for a couple of sporting organisations in my area.

“All in all therefore it's a very important section.

“You know we are very fortunate that we have staff in the Council who are not just going through the motions. They actually really care and want to alleviate people's suffering.

“The volunteer spirit is also crucial. The volunteering ethos in Offaly is phenomenal. We are very grateful to the people of Offaly in that regard.”

Cllr Peter Ormond agreed. “As someone involved in some of these programmes I can see at first hand the work which is being done because of these various funding streams. Thanks to these funding streams there has been tremendous progress made in the last few years. But none of this could exist without the volunteers out there who are working so hard time and time again to find 25% in match funding. Applying for these funding streams is not simple because of the significant paperwork involved.”

Cllr Carroll pointed out that LCDC very quickly found its feet and its remit was significantly expanded. “There is a huge amount of demands coming into the group. There is an awful lot of funding coming through like never before. The Community and Culture Section was excellent in its handling of the Pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, but I don't know how it's going to deal with the inflation crisis.”