Local community and voluntary Organisations, charities and social enterprises will receive €225,278 in funding to help vulnerable citizens during COVID-19, Longford/Westmeath Fine Gael Deputy, Peter Burke, confirmed this week.
“I am delighted that my colleague, Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring, TD, has allocated €10.5 million under Tranche One of the COVID-19 Stability Fund to a total of 179 organisations that provide critical services to those most vulnerable in society.
“The COVID-19 Stability Fund is intended to be a targeted once-off cash injection for organisations and groups delivering critical front-line services to the most at need in our society and in danger of imminent closure due to lost fund-raised or traded income as a direct result of restrictions to counter the spread of the virus.
“Community and voluntary organisations, along with charities and social enterprises have gone above and beyond in their response to the challenges presented by this pandemic and to assisting those most vulnerable in our communities.
“These organisations continued to carry out their essential work while restrictions stalled much activity in Westmeath and I commend and sincerely thank them for that. For that reason, I am delighted that seven organisations within the county will receive €225,278 in funding to provide services.
“Included in the funding is an allocation for Midlands Simon Community, who have had more calls upon their services and have been extremely busy assisting those who experience temporary homelessness across the region and they have been granted €126,713. Their work providing accommodation in a group setting has been made more difficult through COVID-19 and more units have had to be provided so that residents could appropriately self-isolate. They continue to offer support from several apartments in Athlone as well as a Temporary Accommodation Service and the new Government must continue to support the organisation.
“The Government recognised that these organisations required help and additional resources to deliver these essential services and to cope with the inability to generate traded or fundraised income due to social restrictions.
“Following the announcement of a €40 million funding package for the sector, applications were invited for the €35 million Stability Scheme. The Stability Scheme, which is administered by Pobal, opened for applications from May 11-21, with a total of 1,027 applications being received in that period.
“Pobal will contact successful applicants in the coming days to finalise contracts and facilities for payment of funding,” Deputy Burke emphasised.
