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How SICAP funds reach your organisation

SICAP sits under Priority 3 of the Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training (EIST) programme. The ESF+ action approved for SICAP is worth €164.24m over 2021–2027: almost €73m ESF+ and over €91m Irish national money. SICAP’s real budget is larger — €47.5m in 2024, €49m in 2025, plus €10–11m a year for New Arrivals — not all is claimed on ESF+. So most of what reaches you was raised at home, not in Brussels. The EU share is not paid to you directly: Ireland pays you from the Exchequer and claims ESF+ back afterwards, at a fixed unit cost per full-time SICAP worker. Your organisation sits at the Programme Implementer level, contracted by your LCDC and Local Authority across one of 53 lots.

ESF+ — via Pobal and your LCDCReg. (EU) 2021/1057 · unit cost Art. 94 CPR (EIST)€164.24m ESF+ co-financed allocation 2021–2027 · €59m a year with New Arrivals
One programme, too many disconnected records. Delivery notes, partner decisions, expenditure, results and reporting evidence often sit in different places.

How the money reaches an organisation

Every level here can be asked for its own process map. That is the point of yours.

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European Commission — DG Employment
Allocates ESF+ to Ireland under Reg. (EU) 2021/1057 and reimburses SICAP at a unit cost per FTE worker set in the EIST programme (Art. 94 CPR)
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DFHERIS — ESF+ Managing Authority
Dept. of Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science: Managing Authority and Accounting Function for the EIST programme — verifies the claim and submits it to the Commission
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Dept. of Rural & Community Development & the Gaeltacht (DRCDG)
Lead funder and policy owner; the designated ESF+ Intermediate Body for SICAP; channels funding to LCDCs through the Local Authorities. Pobal acts as its agent.
📋
Pobal
Agent of the Department: runs IRIS, monitors data, supports LCDCs and Implementers, does technical checks on plans and reviews. Not a party to your contract.
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Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs)
33 LCDCs are the Contracting Authorities and ESF+ beneficiary bodies: they approve annual plans, monitor Programme Implementers and manage local budgets. The Local Authority is party to the contract, holds the SICAP bank account and pays the Implementer on the LCDC’s approval.
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
🤝
Programme Implementers — NGOs & Community Orgs
Contracted across 53 lots to deliver frontline supports to individuals and groups
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People and groups supported (ESF+ participants)
Twelve target groups, including people in disadvantaged communities, the long-term unemployed, refugees and international protection applicants, disabled people, heads of one-parent families, Travellers, Roma and island residents
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Audit Chain
Implementer keeps staff files → LCDC (with the Local Authority) verifies the yearly staff datasheet → Local Government Audit Service checks a sample of lots for the Department, the Intermediate Body → DFHERIS Managing Authority and Accounting Function verify and claim from the Commission → ESF+ Audit Authority (Department of Education and Youth, Internal & EU Audit Unit) audits a sample. Alongside, not above: the C&AG, the European Court of Auditors and OLAF. ESF+ checks look at the FTE datasheet, contracts and work patterns; the national SICAP audit still checks invoices and receipts.

Process maps under this programme

Where this came from

Human reviewed2026-09-21Automatically checked2026-10-12Current source statusAutomatic check incomplete — human check requiredThe source could not be reached automatically. Published content has been preserved for human checking.

Read against the source on 2026-09-21. This is the human-reviewed version.

What that check changed: Reviewed and updated on 21 September 2026 against the SICAP Programme Requirements by an EU cohesion-funds lawyer, a specialist in Irish public administration and a fact checker, each working from primary sources; 22 sources are listed below. The budget shown is SICAP’s own, about €47–49m a year — not the €164.24m ESF+ allocation for 2021–27 and not Ireland’s €1.08bn EIST programme. The Department is the ESF+ Intermediate Body, and the Local Authority holds the SICAP bank account and pays the Implementer. The control chain includes the Local Government Audit Service, the Managing Authority’s accounting function and the Commission. The map also names the social-enterprise match funding, the start-up grant, the one-to-one condition for groups, Pobal as first contact for data questions, and the current department names.