My Department's Estimate, Vote 3, contains funding of £32.233 million for 1999, including £8.16 million for the administration costs of the Department and £24.073 million for programme expenditure.
The administrative budget, subheads A1 to A7, covers salaries, travel costs, incidental expenses, including official entertainment, state entertainment, training, GIS expenses, advertising, gifts, and other miscellaneous expenses, postal and telecommunications costs, office equipment and supplies, office premises expenses and consultancy costs.
Under the programme Subheads in the Vote for 1999, the following bodies under the aegis of the Department are funded: the Information Society Commission – £550,000; the National Partnership Centre – £415,000; the All Party Committee on the Constitution – £250,000; the All Party Committee on SMI – £60,000; the National Economic and Social Council – Grant-in-Aid £464,000; the National Economic and Social Forum – Grant-in-Aid £464,000; the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation – £80,000.
In addition, the Vote contains the following provisions: £1 million and £4.65 million respectively for the McCracken and Moriarty Tribunals; £45,000 for matching funding for the Territorial Employment Pacts, which are co-financed by the EU; £800,000 for grants under the Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust Act, 1988; £400,000 for Commemoration Initiatives; £14.9 million for Millennium Celebrations.
The Deputy may wish to note that £343,762 has previously been allocated to three separate projects, and a further £1.2 million is now to be allocated to a further 59 projects, involving North South and East West co-operation or relating to the island of Ireland. This funding will be allocated from subhead C, Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust Act, 1988, and subhead E, Commemoration Initiatives, of the Vote. Expenditure on the millennium celebrations is administered by my Department, through the National Millennium Committee which was established towards the end of 1998. The secretariat to the committee is provided by a small millennium office, located within my Department, which is also responsible for co-ordinating the Government's overall millennium programme.
All of the funding outlined above is specifically identified in the 1999 Estimate for my Department.