Vol. 392 No. 1
asked the Minister for Finance the steps which he proposes to take to provide for the effective and efficient allocation of national lottery funds following the report of the all-party committee of the 25th Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
48.
asked the Minister for Finance if the Government have yet concluded its consideration of the interim report of the all-party working group on the system of administering and allocating national lottery funds; if the Government accept the recommendations of the report; if it is intended to implement them; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
55.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will indicate the Government's present intentions in relation to the all-party committee report on the national lottery, published in the last Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 26, 48 and 55 together.
The Government have now completed their consideration of the report of the all-party Dáil working group on the method of allocating national lottery funds, and have decided:
(i) that the amenity grants scheme administered by the Department of the Environment and the recreational facilities grant scheme administered by the Department of Education are to be amalgamated into a single scheme; that grants under this scheme are to be allocated by the Minister for the Environment to projects recommended by local authorities, who will be responsible for processing applications;
(ii) that the Minister for Health will allocate block grants to health boards, to be assigned by them to local voluntary bodies; national programmes funded from the lottery allocation for health purposes (e.g. the AIDS prevention programme) will continue to be operated by the Department of Health;
(iii) that grants to voluntary bodies in the welfare area will continue to be administered by the Minister for Social Welfare;
(iv) the grants for the arts will be administered by the Arts Council with the exception of allocations to the arts falling within the areas of responsibility of the Taoiseach (in the case of national arts institutions); the Minister for Education; the Minister for the Environment; the Minister for Foreign Affairs; the Commissioners of Public Works
(v) as recommended by the working group, there will be no change in existing arrangements for administering lottery funds allocated for youth, Irish language projects, and for current sports expenditure, while the Minister for Education will retain responsibility for the national, regional and local sports centres.
Will the Minister confirm to the House which aspects of the report of the all-party committee have not been accepted and which sections have not been adopted for alteration by him and why not?
The Government have accepted the broad thrust of the recommendations made by the committee in relation to the method of allocating national lottery funds to particular sectors. The arrangements for amalgamating the amenity grants scheme with the recreational facilities scheme in a single consolidated scheme to be administered by the Minister for the Environment, to which I referred to in my reply, differ from those recommended by the all-party committee who envisaged the continuation of two separate schemes. Under the new arrangements grants will be allocated by the Minister for the Environment on the basis of recommendations made by the local authorities, who will be responsible for processing the applications.
Will the Minister be bound by those recommendations?
We amalgamated two schemes, which I believe the House appreciates were a source of overlap and waste. They will be more efficiently administered under the single scheme now representing both schemes.
May I ask the Minister how the balancing requirements or recommendations of different local authorities will be dealt with and who will adjudicate as between the recommendations put in by one local authority as opposed to those of another?
The local authorities will make their own recommendations and send them to the Minister for the Environment who will make the decisions.
Question No. 56, please.
But in the event——
Sorry, Deputy Taylor.
——of an insufficiency of funds, is it the Minister who will adjudicate between competing requirements of local authorities——
I have called the next question, Deputy Taylor. I am seeking to dispose of Priority Questions as best I can. Question No. 56, please.
