Vol. 445 No. 9
146 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of occasions on which he has visited Northern Ireland since the Government was formed; the date, venue and purpose of each visit; and the same information in relation to the Minister or Ministers of State, if any, at his Department. [1542/94]
I have over the years met on a number of occasions with my counterparts in Northern Ireland to discuss issues of mutual interest such as developments in social security at national and EU level and the role of voluntary organisations. My Department also maintains ongoing contact at official level and meetings are held from time to time on issues which need to be addressed. These meetings have included such issues as mutual administrative assistance in relation to disability benefit, invalidity pension and family income supplement and cross-Border control of fraud. The community and voluntary services side of my Department is involved in supporting a number of cross-Border community development initiatives. Only last week, I launched a co-operative venture between Lifford and Derry. Cross-Border projects in which we are involved included the Lifestart Foundation, based in Galway, which runs an innovative home-based intervention programme — targeted at children aged 0-5 years and their parents and which currently operates on a pilot basis in south Connemara, Westside in Galway and Ballymagroarty in Derry.
My Department is also funding the Holywell Trust in Derry to provide community development training and support servives for projects in the Department's Community Development Programme in the north-west region. I have also recently approved the inclusion of Community Connections — a cross-Border community development project based in Blacklion, County Cavan and which operates in west Fermanagh, west Cavan and north Leitrim — in the Community Development Programme with a start-up allocation of £10,000 in 1994.
