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Mr Michael Ring TD, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, has today (Monday 11th May) announced the opening of the online application system for the €35 million COVID-19 Stability Fund for Community and Voluntary Organisations, Charities and Social Enterprises.

Following last Friday’s announcement of a €40 million funding package for the sector, applications are now being invited for the €35 million Stability Fund. The Fund will provide immediate, short term cash flow to qualifying organisations which provide critical services to those most vulnerable in society. The funding will be prioritised for those organisations which are most in need and have seen their trading and/or fundraising income drop significantly during the crisis.

With funding being provided from the Dormant Accounts Fund, the new Stability Fund will provide a once off grant to qualifying organisations. The Fund will focus on organisations providing supports and services in the following sectors

· Health and Social Care (including addiction, disability and mental health)

· Child and Family Services (including counselling/therapies)

· Domestic/Sexual/Gender based violence

· Housing/Homelessness

· Community Services (e.g. meals on wheels/befriending services/old age supports/vulnerable people’s support groups etc.)

· Community Education Sector

Organisations will be required to demonstrate the impact that the crisis has had on their services and applications will be prioritised according to need. Pobal (www.pobal.ie), which works on behalf of Government to support communities and local agencies toward achieving social inclusion and development, will administer the Stability Fund on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Speaking in relation to the fund, Minister Ring said:

The Stability Fund will assist charities, social enterprises and community and voluntary organisations to weather the crisis and allow them to maintain their valuable services. As a society we depend greatly on these organisations and I would like to thank them for their contribution to the inspiring community response to the current crisis.

The application process for the Stability Fund is straightforward. It will be open for a period of ten days in order to facilitate organisations that wish to be considered for funding. A link to the application process can be found on my Department’s website. Pobal have also prepared full additional information regarding the application process which can also be found at that link.

The Minister added:

I would encourage all eligible charities, social enterprises and community and voluntary organisations to fully engage with the application process and contact Pobal at stabilityscheme@pobal.ie  if you have any queries. All of the details can be found on both my Departments website www.gov.ie/drcd and the website of Pobal www.pobal.ie.

This new funding is being provided in addition to more than €45 million in funding, announced last November, for the Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2020, which allocated funding for 43 separate measures to be delivered across nine Government Departments to benefit disadvantaged groups.

Note to editors: 

COVID 19 Stability Fund

The Stability Fund has been developed to provide support to qualifying organisations who find themselves in particular difficulty and have seen their trading and/or fundraising income drop significantly during the crisis. The Fund will be focusing on organisations providing supports and services in the following sectors.

·       Health and Social Care (including addiction, disability and mental health)

·       Child and Family Services (including counselling/therapies)

·       Domestic/Sexual/Gender based violence

·       Housing/Homelessness

·       Community Services (e.g. meals on wheels/befriending services/old age supports/vulnerable people’s support groups etc.)

·       Community Education Sector

With funding being provided from the Dormant Accounts Fund the new Stability Fund will provide a once off grant to qualifying organisations that are providing critical services to those most vulnerable in society. Organisations will be required to demonstrate the impact that the crisis has had on their services and applications will be prioritised according to need.   Pobal (www.pobal.ie), which works on behalf of Government to support communities and local agencies toward achieving social inclusion and development, will administer the Stability Fund on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development.

The Stability Fund will open for applications on the 11th of May 2020. Further details on the Fund can be found on the Department’s website at (www.gov.ie/drcd) and also on the Pobal website at www.pobal.ie.

Email queries can be sent to stabilityscheme@pobal.ie

Examples of other Government Supports

·       Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme

·       Pandemic Unemployment Payment

·       €2 billion Pandemic Stabilisation and Recovery Fund

·       €250 million Restart Fund to assist micro and small businesses

·       3 month waiver on commercial rates for affected businesses worth €250 million.

The Dormant Accounts Fund

The main purpose of the Dormant Accounts legislation is to reunite account or policy holders with their funds; and relevant institutions are required to take steps to identify and contact the owners of dormant accounts and unclaimed life assurance policies. Under the legislation, the rightful owners can reclaim their funds at any time.

In order to utilise funds that are unlikely to be reclaimed, the legislation introduced a scheme for the disbursement of funds that are unlikely to be reclaimed for the purposes of measures to assist those who are economically, socially or educationally disadvantaged, or persons with a disability.

Annual Dormant Accounts Action Plans are published each year, and generally provide funding of €35-40 million per annum for measures aimed at addressing disadvantage. This funding package is a once off package of €40 million, in addition to those annual action plans, and is made possible through a build-up in the funds available over the last number of years.

Pobal

Pobal is an organisation that works on behalf of the Government of Ireland and in collaboration with international partners, to support communities and local agencies towards achieving social inclusion and development. 

Pobal operates under the aegis of the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Pobal is governed by a voluntary Board of Directors. Members of the Board are appointed by Government, on the nomination of the Minister for Rural and Community Development, in line with the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards. The company operates on the basis of a framework agreement with the Department of Rural and Community Development and programme-specific service level agreements with individual Departments.

Pobal administers related programmes on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD), Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), as well as the Department of Health (DoH) /HSE and a number of EU bodies.