The 1999 allocation to Comhar within my Department's Vote is £180,000. This does not include the costs of three staff from my Department who have been assigned to provide a secretariat for Comhar. Those costs will be met from my Department's administrative budget.
It is a matter for Comhar to determine its own work programme, within its overall terms of reference, and it must inform Government, through me, of that programme of work within three months of its establishment.
Comhar's overall terms of reference are to advance the national agenda for sustainable development, to evaluate progress in this regard, to assist in devising suitable mechanisms and advising on their implementation, and to contribute to the formation of a national consensus in these regards.