Concern at charities not included in Covid fund
THE Communities Minister has insisted that charities with financial reserves should not have been excluded from a Stormont financial support scheme.
Caral Ni Chuilin’s comments came after some charity bosses voiced frustration at being denied pandemic support funding — despite suffering a huge drop in income this year.
Last month, they told Ms Ni Chuilin’s Assembly scrutiny committee that charities with reserves built up had been unable to access support.
Meanwhile, regional branches of Uk-wide organisations were finding it difficult to gain recognition as Northern Ireland operations.
A £15.5m support fund for charities was launched by the Department for Communities in the summer.
In the first round of funding, £8.8m was allocated to 501 charities, with 139 applications ruled ineligible.
The remaining £6.7m, plus a
further £5m released by the Department of Finance last week, is due to be allocated in a second round of funding in January.
During Assembly question time, East Belfast DUP MLA Robin Newton raised the concern that UK charities with an footprint in Northern Ireland had missed out on funding because the Uk-wide organisation had reserves at its disposal.
The minister replied: “I’m quite sorry to hear that because any charity that has reserves does not exclude them from applying to this fund.
“If the member has any examples I’d be happy to receive those.
“I mean this is about how people try to raise money here for their charitable purposes here.
“The whole charity fundraising has been greatly inhibited almost to the point where it has ceased.
“So I’d be really disappointed, particularly given the work that people are doing on our behalf, if they didn’t get any support at all.”
Ms Ni Chuilin indicated an announcement on the second wave of funding was imminent.
“I’m acutely aware that charities are still facing significant financial challenges and I’m working on announcements shortly for a further phase of funding to support them,” she said.
Ms Ni Chuilin has been acting as Communities Minister since June when her Sinn Fein colleague Deirdre Hargey stood aside due to illness.