The National Community Café Action Group has launched its first-ever impact report and has presented the report to the Irish Government.

On 2 July, representatives travelled to Leinster House to present the findings on how the growth in popularity of community cafés has led to increased wellbeing within rural Irish communities. However, these services require ongoing support to ensure they continue to operate at scale.

Community cafés fall into a social enterprise framework. They incorporate elements of a café, but often also act as a local shop. Most importantly, they operate as a social meeting place for rural communities.

Since 2012, 27 community cafés have been established across the Republic of Ireland. They help combat rural isolation and loneliness in areas which no longer have local shops and post offices. They provide inter-generational connections, bringing together school-aged children with older members of the community and play a vital role in sustainable community development.

Mary Fogarty is co-founder and manager at The Cottage in Loughmore, Co Tipperary – one of Ireland’s first-ever community cafés, which first opened in 2012. Since opening The Cottage, Mary has helped numerous other Irish communities set up similar business models.

In 2024, it was suggested to Mary that a national network be created so all of the cafés in the country could have a unified voice; particularly as the past year has been difficult for all food businesses with cost increases across the board. This led to the creation of the National Community Café Action Group.

They exist for the community, rather than for a return on investment

“I found the idea [of creating a national network] a bit daunting, so I said we would set one up in Tipperary, first,” Mary says. “But when we came together and found we all shared the same concerns and were struggling to keep the doors open due to the huge rise in costs, we realised we needed to bring everyone together.”

Unlike other food businesses, community cafés operate as a community service first. They exist for the community, rather than for a return on investment. The 27 cafés (which are found within 11 different counties) combined provide 18 full-time and 32 part-time jobs. However, they also depend on community volunteers – 362 volunteers, to be exact.

They also provide employment opportunities for community members with additional needs and are largely supportive of small, local producers. Social inclusion is their number one reason for being.

Leonie Maher is The Cottage’s public relations officer and worked closely with Mary to create the impact report.

“At the core of every community café’s ethos is to create space for everyone – we appreciate that businesses are struggling, but within our model, we can’t turn the cost over to our customers. It goes against our ethos, and this is why we urgently need Government investment.”

Mary adds, “We’re providing essential services and helping combat rural loneliness. Here at The Cottage, we have music evenings, the children from the local school grow vegetables for us, they interact with the older people. The kids learn about our heritage, in this way.

“A relatively small Government investment would have such a huge impact on a vast number of people.”