Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 20 Mar 2001

Vol. 532 No. 4

Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.

Denis Foley

Question:

457 Mr. Foley asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will list, in respect of County Kerry, for each of the years 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 the grants, projects or schemes funded by his Department, or any agency under the aegis of his Department; the receiving body or organisation; and the amount allocated in each instance. [7504/01]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern):

My Department, and agencies which come under the aegis of my Department, provide funding for a number of grant schemes, projects and programmes as follows: grant schemes – scheme of grants to locally based community and family support groups; scheme of grants to voluntary organisations; community development education and training grants scheme; scheme of community support for older people grants for voluntary organisation providing marriage, child and bereavement counselling services; grants for the development and promotion of information and welfare rights; employment support services grants; once-off grant schemes, scheme of grants to locally based community and family support groups, scheme of grants to voluntary organisations and community development education and training grants scheme.

The above once off grant schemes provide support for local self-help groups, community development, welfare rights and information work.

The purpose of the scheme of community support for older people is to provide funding for initiatives to improve the security and social support of vulnerable older people.

The grants for voluntary organisations providing marriage, child and bereavement counselling services scheme which is administered by my Department provides grants to support activity in the areas of marriage counselling, marriage preparation courses, child counselling in relation to parental separation and bereavement counselling and support on the death of a family member.

Grants are paid for the development and promotion of information and welfare rights awareness and for supporting voluntary sector organisations to undertake approved projects.

My Department also operates a number of long-term funding programmes which are collectively referred to as the community support programmes: community development programme; family and community services resource centre programme; programme of core funding to locally based community and family support groups.

The purpose of these programmes is to provide seed money to enable locally based community groups to pilot initiatives in relation to poverty and disadvantage. The programmes are concerned with promoting positive change in society in favour of those who benefit least from economic development and are focused primarily on enhancing the capacity of those experiencing poverty and disadvantage to participate more effectively in society.

There are fifty money advice and budgeting service projects supported by my Department around the country at present, including one in Tralee. These projects provide an advice and budget management service to people in difficulty with moneylending and over indebtedness.

The family mediation service – FMS – provides a professional and confidential service for couples who have decided to separate, or who have already separated, to negotiate their own separation agreement. The service is free and available at 11 locations nationwide, including Tralee. The FMS is an integral part of my Department.

Details of all the grants made by my Department in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999 are available in the Oireachtas Library for the information of Members. However these are, in the main, listed under my Departments regions rather than by county. Details of the grants made by my Department in the year 2000 are currently being finalised and will be made available within the coming weeks, with the exception of the marriage, child and bereavement counselling grants for 2000, which are presently available in the Oireachtas Library.

A special fund, employment support services grants, is provided by my Department to provide financial assistance for projects designed to help the unemployed and lone parents to return to work, education or training. A list of those grants paid in respect of County Kerry for the years 1997 to 2000 follows.

Other agencies which come under the aegis of my Department include the Combat Poverty Agency and Comhairle.

The Combat Poverty Agency – CPA – operates a number of schemes and grants to support the development of anti-poverty activity. The overall purpose is to provide funding to facilitate community and voluntary groups to influence policy at local, regional and national level for the benefit of those affected by poverty. Details of all the grants paid by the CPA in the years 1997, 1998 and 1999 are available in the agency's annual reports for those years, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library. Details of the grants paid in 2000 will not become available until later this year.

Comhairle is the new national agency responsible for the provision of information, advice and advocacy on social services. It combines the former National Social Service Board with certain functions of the former National Rehabilitation Board. It provides a range of grant schemes for the support and development of the independent information-advice sector and the voluntary sector. A list of Comhairle-NSSB grants paid in respect of County Kerry for the years 1997 to 2000 follows:

Appendix I

Employment Support Service Special Projects, County Kerry

Year	Description	Amount
1997	None	Nil
1998	None	Nil
1999	Pre-employment training programme for the long-term unemployed in Tralee Career Training and Planning Consultancy Limited, Waterville.	£2,200
	Telemarketing course for unemployed in Killarney in partnership with Killarney Local Employment Service – Killarney LES.	£13,700
2000	Co-funding of IT course with Tralee LES for the Long term unemployed – Tralee LES.	£4,000
	Training course in job seeking skills for long-term unemployed in Killarney Career Training and Planning Consultancy Limited, Waterville.	£5,400
	ECDL Course for long-term unemployed in Tralee in partnership with Tralee LES –Tralee LES.	£2,750

Appendix II

Comhairle-NSSB Grants to County Kerry 2000-2001

Comhairle-NSSB Grants to Citizens Information Centres' Running Costs

Year	Citizens Information Centre	Amount Allocated
1997	Tralee	£15,000
	Killarney	£1,000
1998	Tralee	£80,000
	Killarney	£1,398
1999	Tralee only	£69,000
	Killarney	£790
2000	County Kerry, Tralee and Killarney	£79,750
	Killarney only, April 2000	£2,800
	Kerry CIS November 2000	£7,500
	Special Grant Kerry CIS December 2000 – Research Grant	£5,000

Comhairle-NSSB Information Grant Scheme

Year	Organisation	Project	Amount Allocated
1999	Kerry County Network of People withDisabilities	Access for AllAim of Project to research and develop a template that identifies and logs the stages of meeting the information needs of People with Disabilities	£15,000Received on 15 October 1999
2000	Kerry Deaf Resource Centre	To ensure deaf adults, children and their families have full access to information and services which are available in the Kerry region so they are able to be self determining, independent and able to participate at all levels in the Kerry Community.	£15,000Received in December2000
	Comhairle-NSSB publication grant scheme		Nil
	Comhairle-NSSB training grant scheme		Nil
1998	Tralee CIC	Training Programme for new informationgivers	£660
	St. Brendans Pastoral Centre Tralee	Training Course in BereavementCounselling	£500
1999			Nil
2000			Nil