Irish Local Development Network (ILDN) representing Ireland’s 49 Local Development Companies today (Thursday) met with the Sinn Fein Spokesperson for Public Expenditure & Reform Mairead Farrell TD and Spokesperson for Social Protection Rural & Community Development Claire Kerrane TD to outline the Network’s priorities ahead of the Budget 2022.
ILDN priorities for Budget 2022:
- ILDN proposes a nationwide Local Employment Service delivered through Local Development Companies
- ILDN calls for increased investment in the Social Inclusion & Community Activation Programme and the development of a Digital Inclusion Fund. Budget 2022 provides an opportunity to take a significant step towards the restoration of the SICAP Budget to 2008 levels.
- ILDN urges the Government to provide the maximum permitted level of Exchequer co-funding for the purposes of LEADER
- ILDN calls for a successor to the Ability Programme to be announced in Budget 2022
- ILDN underlines the importance of deeper investment in Social Enterprise
- ILDN recommend reforms of Tús, Community Employment & Rural Social Schemes in order to maximise eligibility and participation
- ILDN suggests the introduction of a Core Costs Model to ensure the future sustainability of the Local Development Sector
Commenting on the meeting, ILDN CEO Joe Saunders said; “ILDN members deliver over 180 Programmes in their Communities on behalf of Government Departments, State Agencies, and other funding bodies. Our Local Development Companies are involved in the delivery of over €340 million in State Programmes in 2021. This morning’s meeting was an important opportunity to brief the largest opposition Party on our priorities ahead of Budget 2022.”
Commenting on the ILDN’s Pre-Budget Submission, ILDN Social Inclusion Chair Adeline O’Brien said; “Poverty, homelessness, social exclusion, isolation, the growing educational divide, climate breakdown and marginalisation now require a budget response that reflects a sense of real urgency. The ILDN also wishes to highlight the increase in child poverty over the previous decade and our commitment to early intervention and family support. We want to see these issues named and highlighted in the budget and the transformational change now required to tackle these issues equally reflected in spend allocation and targets.”
ILDN Rural Development/LEADER Chair Éamonn O’Reilly said; “Budget 2022 offers the Government an opportunity to reimagine how the State reaches out to the most vulnerable and peripheral Communities in our Country. The COVID19 recovery requires investment in the areas of social inclusion, Rural Development, LEADER, supports for the long-term unemployed, and the Community & Voluntary Sector who led the COVID19 response nationwide.”
The ILDN Pre-Budget Submission 2022 can be accessed here: https://ildn.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ILDN-Pre-Budget-Submission-2022.pdf
