Liam Aylward
Question:133 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the progress to date on the application by an organisation (details supplied) in County Kilkenny for funding under the CAIT initiative. [12891/01]
Written Answers - CAIT Initiative.
Liam Aylward
Question:134 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the progress to date of an application for funding under the CAIT initiative by an organisation (details supplied) in County Carlow. [12892/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 134 together.
The Community Application of Information Technology initiative seeks to fund demonstration projects which encourage and assist those in our society who are unfamiliar with, and who do not use, the new information and communications technologies in their everyday lives. It is intended that the community and voluntary sector will undertake these projects. More than £2.5 million has been provided for this purpose from the information society fund over the period June 2001 to December 2002.
In excess of 450 proposals were received before the deadline which expired on 15 February last. These proposals have been reviewed and evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria stated on the application form. As many as 112 were shortlisted for further evaluation. The results of this shortlisting process were posted to project proposers on 10 April 2001.
Unfortunately, the proposal received from the Templeorum Development Association was not shortlisted for further evaluation.
In the next number of weeks an independent steering group containing representatives of the Department of Public Enterprise, other Departments and the private sector will consider the shortlisted proposals and make recommendations for funding.
The CAIT initiative is just one of many initiatives being undertaken as part of a wider Government programme to ensure a fully inclusive information society in Ireland.