Minister Calleary and Minister Buttimer announce increased funding to the Community Services Programme

• Over 400 community organisations nationwide to benefit from increased funding
• 9 new organisations to join the programme in 2026
• Over 50 organisations set to benefit from a higher funding category
• 11 organisations’ contracts extended to end 2027
• Plans to open the CSP Programme to new applications early next year

Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Jerry Buttimer TD, have today (Wednesday, 17 December 2025) announced increased funding for over 400 organisations nationwide currently supported under the Community Services Programme (CSP).

The revised funding rates to be applied from 1 January 2026 will see:

• an increase of €1,260 in the annual contribution per post to organisations categorised as having a high funding need; and
• an increase of €1,160 in the annual contribution per post for CSP organisations categorised as having a medium funding need; and,
• an increase of €400 per annum to all 351 CSP-supported manager positions across all funding categories.

55 CSP-supported organisations are set to move to a higher funding category. This is a targeted measure to focus additional support on organisations with evident financial need.

A further 9 organisations, including Ballinamore Community Hall CLG trading as The Island Theatre, are now set to join the CSP programme commencing early 2026. This will support employment for 11 full-time posts and 6 managers and will bring the total number of organisations supported to 435 in 2026.

In addition, 11 organisations with an original contract end date of 31 December 2025 have had their contracts extended for a further 2 years.

Ministers Calleary and Buttimer also announced that there will be an open call for new organisations to join the CSP Programme in early 2026.

Welcoming the increased funding, Minister Calleary said:

Speaking during a visit to the Island Theatre in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, Minister Buttimer added:

The CSP Programme supports the delivery of over 440 services nationally via 426 community organisations to provide local social, economic, and environmental services through a social enterprise model. The Programme focuses on urban and rural communities where public and private sector services are lacking, either through geographical or social isolation or because of demand deficits. The CSP Programme provides an annual co-funding contribution towards the cost of each full-time equivalent (FTE) position being supported, and, where warranted, towards the cost of employing a manager.

As part of the Budget 2026 package announced in October, the CSP Programme was allocated an additional €4m, bringing its total funding allocation for 2026 to €59.4m.

Community Services Programme

The Community Services Programme (CSP) currently supports 445 community-based services via 426 organisations, to provide local social, economic and environmental services through a social enterprise model.

The CSP Programme, which is not aligned to the minimum wage, provides a funding contribution towards the cost of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions and, where warranted, manager positions. The funding provided is not intended to meet the full salary cost of supported posts. Qualifying organisations must be social enterprises capable of generating income from their activities in order to meet the full salary costs of the supported posts, for example, from income received from the public use of facilities and services. The CSP contribution supports organisations to meet local service gaps and provide access to services and facilities that would generally be unavailable.

As of October 2025, there are 351 Managers and 1,721 FTEs currently being supported under the Programme. The current Community Services Programme commenced in January 2023 and will cease in December 2027. The CSP programme is administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht.

The current iteration of the CSP Programme runs from 2023 to 2027.

Revised allocations

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 operating in areas of higher disadvantage, employing at least 70% of individuals from the prescribed programme target groups and having limited earning potential, benefitted from the higher funding rate category.

The revised rates for 2026 are set out in the table hereunder:

New organisations joining the Programme in 2026

A further nine organisations, set out in the table below, were added to a wait list following the 2023 Open Call.