Vol. 535 No. 1
84 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the total amount of money allocated under the social inclusion and child care sub-programme of the national development plan; the total amount drawn down to date; if he has satisfied himself at the rate at which the money is being drawn down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11994/01]
The local development work of area based partnerships and ADM community groups continues to be supported with funding under the social inclusion and child care sub-programme of the regional operational programmes. This funding amounts to £220 million over the life of the National Development Plan 2000-2006. A sum of £122 million has also been provided for the national drugs strategy under the sub-programme for this period.
The local development measure required that local action plans were drawn up by partnership companies and ADM community groups, in consultation with the director of community and enterprise of the relevant city and county development boards. These plans were submitted to ADM Limited by December 2000 and were evaluated by ADM's appraisal committees for the southern and eastern region, and for the border, midlands and western region. The allocation of funding for the period 2000 to 2003 has now taken place. Allocations are subject to an annual review and the amounts allocated may be increased or decreased on the basis of each groups effectiveness in carrying out their plan.
In 2000 over £16 million was drawn down under the new programme. The year 2000 also saw the completion of work under the previous local development programme – OPLURD – which amounted to funding of a further £6 million. A sum of £34.5 million has been allocated to ADM for partnerships and community groups to implement their action plans in 2001. Of this amount, £15.17 million has already been drawn down by ADM between January and April of 2001 in relation to the January-June period. This is a satisfactory level of drawdown for the period in question.
Under the drugs initiative, an amount of over £9 million was drawn down under the NDP in 2000. This amount relates to expenditure under the existing local drugs task force plans. The task forces are currently in the process of submitting their new plans for assessment by the national drugs strategy team. To date, 11 plans have been submitted, of which nine have been approved, and funding of £5.6 million has been earmarked in respect of these plans to provide a wide variety of initiatives in the areas of treatment, rehabilitation and awareness, prevention and education. The remaining three plans are expected shortly. Drawdown for 2001 amounting to £60,000 is related to administrative and operational expenses only but expenditure will commence as soon as the projects provided for under the approved plans are in place.
