Minister for Community Development, Integration and Charities, Joe O’Brien TD, has (today) Wednesday, 13th December 2023 announced an increase in funding for the vast majority of Community Services Programme (CSP) supported organisations.

The CSP aims to provide employment opportunities and local services to disadvantaged communities.

No change is proposed for the small number of organisations in the low funding category, these are organisations identified as having the strongest earning potential and operating in less disadvantaged areas.

Minister Joe O'Brien made the announcement in Drumcondra, Co. Dublin while visiting the Conference Centre of the Child Vision organisation, one of the 14 organisations approved to join the programme:

The Minister went on to say:

The Minister concluded:

The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports 437 community-based services via 417 organisations, to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model.

CSP provides an annual co-funding contribution towards each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager. As of October 2023, there are 336 Managers and 1,696 FTE’s currently being supported under the programme.

The CSP contribution is not aligned to the minimum wage and does not meet the full salary cost of supported posts, rather it is a fixed annual contribution towards the salary costs of managers and employees in supported organisations. The CSP contribution must be co-funded by the organisation concerned from other sources, for example, from income received from the public use of their facilities and services.

As part of a restructuring process completed in 2022, a new funding rate allocation model for the CSP programme was introduced in January 2023, as an alternative to the previous flat rate payment model. CSP organisations that are operating in areas of high disadvantage, employing individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and having limited earning potential benefitted from the higher funding rate category.

Given the impact the increase of €1.40 per hour to the minimum wage level will have on organisations supported under the CSP programme, the Department’s contribution to the CSP Funding Rates are now being increased in 2024 by €2,717 in the contribution per full-time equivalent to organisations having a high funding need and €2,142 to organisations categorised as having a medium funding need. An increased contribution of €1,500 towards the manager’s salary in the high category in 2024 and €1,000 for organisations in the medium category.

No change is proposed for the small number of organisations in the low funding category, these are organisations identified with the strongest earning potential and operating in less disadvantaged areas.

The 2024 revised allocations are outlined in the table below.

Funding of €1m was made available for a new call for applications under the CSP in 2023, in order to provide new organisations with an opportunity to access support to employ additional staff in line with the programme’s re-defined sub-programmes and new vision. The purpose of this funding is to support social enterprises and community/voluntary organisations.

Pobal, who administer the programme on behalf of the Department will advise all applicants on the outcome of their application. 14 community based organisations are now approved entry to the CSP, supporting 13 manager positions and 23 full time equivalent positions, valued at c. €1m.

The list of Organisations to enter into contract under CSP during December 2023 are outlined in the table below.