I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that fire safety should be an absolute priority, particularly in all buildings used by the public and by children. Representatives of the community centres in Huntstown and Hartstown in Dublin 15 have written to politicians because considerable sums of money are needed for fire safety works if these invaluable centres are to remain open. Childcare, bingo, youth clubs, Zumba and martial arts are among the facilities and activities provided at these community centres. They are even places of worship. Both of them are in the constituency shared by the Taoiseach and me. I doubt that they are unique. This must be a national issue. The communities of Hartstown and Huntstown have rallied in the past and they will do so again. They took the initiative to establish these centres in the first place, when they organised "buy a brick" campaigns and collected weekly donations. A silver lining to this cloud has been the emergence of younger activists who want to keep these community centres open for their children.

There is only so much bag-packing that can be done, and there are only so many "strictly" events, 5 km races, race nights and quizzes that can be organised. I suggest that at a certain point the State must step in and acknowledge the vital role played by community centres. Margaret Thatcher once said "there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women ... and people must look after themselves". Is this the Taoiseach's maxim too, or does he appreciate the role of community centres in society? Huntstown community centre provides breakfasts for vulnerable children who attend the school next door. People in the centre help five homeless families to wash their clothes and to get hot meals in the coffee shop. Nobody asked them to do this. Nobody is giving them extra money for doing it. They do it because the housing crisis is hitting hard and they see the need for these services. They get no extra money for plugging these gaps, which stem from Government failures.

The voluntary and community sector was savaged during the recession. Approximately 16,000 jobs were lost. The local community development programme was cut by 35%. I have spoken to a community manager who was notified by email of a cut of €32,000 in 2010. Does the Taoiseach agree that it is time for the State to give some of this money back? It has to be pointed out that many of the works needed now can be attributed to the shoddy building regulations that were overseen by Governments led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In 2014, work was done on Huntstown community centre to insulate its crèche. The authorities at the centre have now been told that this could ignite and emit toxic fumes in the crèche. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs had a fund for fire safety with less than €1 million in it, but that fund has now been closed. As the Taoiseach is aware, school buildings in our community have had to close because of a lack of fire safety. I ask him to do this properly for community centres. Will he establish an audit of all community buildings? Will he fund that audit? Will he set up a national fund from which community centres can draw down funds to enable these works to be carried out? People should not have to pack bags to raise money for fire doors.

I am very much aware of the issues with fire safety in Hartstown and Huntstown community centres, which are in the constituency shared by the Deputy and me. Some community centres, particularly many of the new ones, are owned and controlled by local authorities, whereas many of the older ones are privately owned. One of them belongs to the Archdiocese of Dublin. In other cases, they are owned by charities.

The Department of Rural and Community Development, under the Minister, Deputy Michael Ring, is engaged in this. I understand we have been able to find funding for Hartstown to allow it to carry out its fire safety works. I am not sure if the issue has been entirely sorted, but the work was being done a few months ago. I will look into Huntstown The idea of having a national fund for community centres is a good one. It does not exist and, given the establishment of the Department for Rural and Community Development, it is something we could consider.

I am glad the Taoiseach thinks it is a good idea and has accepted that it will be needed because the issue will arise in community centres around the country. It is not possible for all of them to contact Deputies, get involved in individual fundraising and draw down individual amounts of funds. Significant amounts of money are involved. Each centre needs €120,000. As I said, significant funds have been raised by the local community, but that well can only be dipped into to a certain point before it runs dry. I am asking the Taoiseach to make it very clear where community centre fundraising groups and management committees need to go.

The Minister, Deputy Ring, has agreed to supply funds for Hartstown, but it has not yet been made clear how much will be provided, or when or how. The matter is still very much up in the air. Huntstown is at an early stage. These community centres, like most, are not run by local authorities and are not in DEIS areas. Rather, they are in ordinary working class communities where people have done things for themselves and they now need the Taoiseach to provide a commitment that the Government will not let the centres close and will help them by making the pathway by which they can get funds very clear.

I understand the amount for Hartstown has been settled, but I will check up on that. As the Deputy said, Huntstown is at an early stage and still needs to be worked on.

Funds are available. There is a €1 billion fund for rural development and a €2 billion fund for urban regeneration. Local authorities have community funds, funded through the local property tax, rates and so on. I appreciate that this is an issue which has arisen, and I am sure community centres around the country need not just fire safety but other works, and it is not clear to which fund they should apply. That is a genuine problem and that is why the Deputy's suggestion of establishing a dedicated fund for community centres, perhaps under the auspices of the Department of Rural and Community Development, might be a sensible way to go forward.