‘More funding needed’ to help disadvantaged urban areas

PLANNING, implementation and funding problems have beset a major Government programme designed to revitalise disadvantaged urban areas, according to an independent evaluation of the project.

The report said there should be a significant increase in funding for the RAPID programme and a commitment to provide long-term funding.

The RAPID initiative, set up in 2001, targets 25 designated disadvantaged urban areas as well as 20 provincial towns.

The evaluation highlighted a number of positive aspects of the programme, including increased community involvement in local development and a greater number of community projects.

However, the evaluators, Fitzpatrick Consultants, said there was no overall budget for RAPID and that funding was highly complex, with a rough estimate of Government funding of €350 million between 2001 and 2005.

“There is a general weakness in strategic planning to underpin the activity being progressed in RAPID areas, resulting in an often ad hoc and reactive approach to bringing forward projects,” said the report.

It said there was “limited implementation” of the programme in a number of areas, most of which constituted “the most disadvantaged of all areas”.

The report, prepared for the Department of Community Affairs, criticised the Departments of Education and Enterprise, as well as FÁS, for not getting sufficiently involved in RAPID.

“There is a difficulty in securing funding for certain types of projects, particularly in relation to education, training and employment, despite these areas of activity representing a key means by which lasting solutions can be found to issues of social exclusion in RAPID communities.”

The report called on the Department of Enterprise to consider setting up an incentive scheme for employers to take on potential employees from RAPID areas.

It said the programme had made “substantial progress in identifying the needs of disadvantaged communities and in bringing forward important local projects in response to those needs”.

“This report highlights beyond doubt that the RAPID programme plays an invaluable role in helping to target social exclusion at community level,” the authors said.