Vol. 492 No. 4
139 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the schemes, if any, there are within his Department to grant aid groups involved with animal welfare or shelter activities; if so, if he will provide details of these; the plans, if any, he has to introduce these; and the help, if any, available from the Government for this cause. [14079/98]
While no specific schemes are operated by my Department, grants totalling £380,000 have been paid to a number of animal welfare bodies during the period 1995-97. As the payment of such aid is invariably an end-of-year exercise depending on the resources available to my Department, I am not in a position to guarantee the continuation of such assistance. I will, however, consider requests from animal welfare organisations in the context of any funding which might become available to me.
