Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 24 Oct 2001

Vol. 542 No. 6

Written Answers. - Departmental Spending.

Gerry Reynolds

Question:

256 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the money allocated and spent to date in 2001 by his Department in each county excluding the BMW region under the national development plan. [25403/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

My Department has responsibility for a number of measures in the southern and eastern region under the national development plan. These include the equal opportunities child care programme, an equality for women measure, a measure to prepare prisoners for employment after their release, a crime prevention measure, a Garda youth diversion programme and an equal opportunities promotion and monitoring unit. The material requested is set out under the individual measures.

The child care measure: total project funding approved and distributed to the S & E counties at 30 September 2001 under the equal opportunities child care programme is set out in the following table:

County

Project funding approved(IR£/)

Funding provided to projects (IR£/)

Carlow

523,768/665,048

114,210/145,017

Clare

1,472,454/1,869,631

203,976/258,996

Cork

6,234,308/7,915,938

1,199,324/1,522,827

Dublin

15,474,046/19,647,986

3,301,402/4,191,915

Kerry

3,466,313/4,401,310

1,010,009/1,282,447

Kildare

701,222/890,368

214,460/272,308

Kilkenny

1,149,150/1,459,120

92,850/117,895

Limerick

2,713,459/3,445,382

429,448/545,286

Meath

537,590/682,598

149,728/190,115

Tipperary

1,236,438/1,569,952

303,980/385,975

Waterford

1,251,740/1,589,382

360,364/457,568

Wexford

2,865,372/3,638,272

505,021/641,244

Wicklow

689,509/875,496

126,729/160,913

Totals in

S & E Counties

38,315,370/48,650,484

8,011,501/10,172,508

In addition, the equal opportunities child care programme approved quality improvement proposals from national voluntary child care organisations totalling IR£6,294,846, 7,992,805, in the S & E region of which IR£1,558,731, 1,979,181, has been distributed by 30 September 2001. As these organisations operate on a national basis, it is not possible to allocate this funding at county level.

The equality for women measure: the national development plan provides for an allocation of IR£17.09 million, 21.7 million, to the southern and eastern region for the equality for women measure over the period 2000-06. To date, IR£5.21 million, 6.61 million, has been allocated to 33 individual projects which will run from 2001 to 2004 in the region. This figure includes an amount of regional activity where the benefits in terms of publications and information extend to the full region. The county allocation is identified below:

	IR£/
Carlow	250,000/317,434
Clare	183,000/232,362
Cork	121,000/153,638
Dublin	924,000/1,173,238
Kerry	538,000/683,119
Kildare	130,000/165,066
Limerick	229,000/290,770
Meath	80,000/101,579
Tipperary	60,000/76,184
Waterford	156,000/198,079
Wicklow	223,000/283,151
Regional Projects	319,000/405,046
National projects	1,997,000/2,535,667
Total	5,210,000/6,615,333

In addition, an amount of activity under this measure will have national application. This includes support for the National Framework Committee to develop family friendly initiatives at the level of the enterprise. Individual projects in the S & E region have yet to be identified under this strand and under the strand for gender proofing of personnel policies.

Expenditure in 2001 on the measure in the S & E region is IR£409,081, 519,426. It is anticipated that expenditure in all areas of the measure will increase in the second half of 2001 as the projects commence activity.

The NDP gender equality unit: under the employment and human resources development operational programme, the NDP gender equality unit has been allocated IR£4.22 million, 5.36 million, for the period 2000-06. This funding is allocated to the southern and eastern region as a whole and not to any particular county. The unit has been established to promote equal opportunities between women and men, in particular, through a gender mainstreaming approach. This unit's spending has a nationwide effect. Each county in the southern and eastern region has been represented at various training events which the unit has organised. In 2001, out of 250 people who have attended training courses, 176 have been from the S & E region. Spending to the end of June 2001 by the unit was IR£91,717.00, 116,456.

The crime prevention measure: funding allocated to prisons services training for the S & E region for 2001 was IR£5.88 million, 7.47 million. A total of IR£1.65 million, 2.1 million, has been spent to date. All of this spending was in County Dublin. The full roll-out of the prisoner training programme throughout the region is under way.

The Probation and Welfare Service has been allocated £975,635, 1,238,801, for the S&E region under the NDP for 2001. A total of £141,325, 179,446, has been spent up to 30 June 2001. To date there has been no capital expenditure in this region.

Current expenditure by the Probation and Welfare Service under the NDP provides for new interventions such as pre-employment training and education for offenders, referrals for substance abuse treatment and programmes for sex offenders. It is not possible to specify spending to date in each county as there are no pre-determined allocations for specific counties. It may be that offenders will avail of some of these services who are now resident outside of their county of origin, for example in hostels, or who have come before courts in other counties, or who are serving custodial sentences in prisons and places of detention not located in their home county.

The Garda youth diversion programme: the expenditure allocated at county level to date under the Garda youth diversion programme is set out in the following table. A further allocation may occur in respect of these projects during 2001 subject to submission of detailed accounts.

County	Allocation for 2001 ((to date)£
Clare	53,67468,152
Cork	299,943380,420
Dublin	250,453318,051
Kerry	20,00025,400
Kilkenny	57,31472,774
Limerick	20,00025,400
Meath	25,00031,750
Tipperary	60,24176,506
Waterford	60,00076,200
Wexford	29,03436,866
TOTAL	875,6591,112,027