Help for Leitrim community and parish halls

A new Community Support Fund has been set up nationwide to help Community Centres, Parish Halls and other local social clubs and groups with energy bills.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister of State, Joe O’Brien TD, today announced  the new €10 million fund to support thousands of local community & voluntary groups with their energy bills.€265,201 has been made available to Leitrim and local groups are encouraged to apply for financial help.

The Community Support Fund will provide small grants to a wide and diverse range of local community groups to assist with their running costs.Funding will be available 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.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.

Announcing the funding today, Minister Humphreys said: “Like everybody else, community groups are not immune from rising prices. This new scheme is about supporting these groups with their costs whether it’s the electricity bill,
insurance costs or other overheads. As Minister for Rural and Community Development, I fully appreciate the fantastic work
carried out by volunteers in communities across the country whether it’s the local Parish Hall Committee, the Development Association or the local Senior Citizens Group. These local committees work hard to make sure they can keep the lights on and ru fantastic local services and events for young and old to enjoy.

The Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) will administer this fund. Leitrim has received €365,201, Sligo got €282,702, Roscommon €279,88) and Donegal €374,061. Local Fine Gael Minister Frank Feighan said, “These grants will help many community organisations, clubs, men’s and women’s sheds, youth centres and parish halls across the constituency to
continue to provide their valuable services to the people in their local areas, so I urge those committees in charge to contact their local LCDC next week to get their application forms in.”