MEN’S SHEDS SUSTAINABILITY GRANT EXTENSION
We are delighted to announce that the Department of Rural and Community Development are giving an extension to the eligible time frame for qualifying expenditure for the Men’s Sheds Sustainability Grant. This is to allow more time for sheds to apply for the grant. There are currently 305 application received; while this number way surpasses the previous grant scheme by Minister Ring and administered by local authorities which provided grants to 124 sheds in year 1 and 60 sheds in year 2; we are still aware of a number of sheds who require in-shed support and help around the process.
Payments for application that are already approved for the total amount of grant €2000 will begin next week on Wednesday 8th March. The payments to sheds will be made in order of receipt of shed applications, we will be in touch with each shed individually.
What does this mean in practice for Sheds
- This means that the new eligible time frame for qualifying expenditure will now be extended by 4 months until 30th April 2023. The previous eligible time frame for qualifying expenditure ran from 1st January 2022 until 31st December 2022. Under this new extension any qualifying expenditure from the 1st January 2023 until 30th April 2023 can now be used to claim the grant.
- Sheds that have been unable to claim the full amount of the grant €2000 because they were closed for a large part of 2022 and were therefore unable to generate enough qualifying expenditure should now be in a position to add to their qualifying expenditure and claim the full amount of the grant. We will now write directly to theses sheds (the ones that we are aware of) in the coming days to advise on your course of action.
- Sheds that have been unable to claim the full amount of the grant €2000 because they received other sources of grant aid towards some of the overhead cost of running their shed in 2022 will now be able to add to their qualifying expenditure and claim the full amount of the grant. We will now write directly to theses sheds (the ones that we are aware of) in the coming days to advise on your course of action.
- Most importantly it will allow the Irish Men’s Sheds Association more time to support the sheds who have not been in apposition to make an application for various reason. This will allow time to maximise the total number of sheds that will receive the grant.
