Vol. 537 No. 4
129 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will clarify the situation in relation to funding from his Department to various programmes, groups, LES schemes, young persons' facilities and service fund, area partnerships, enterprise boards and child care groups; if he will ensure that such funding is allocated to its specified purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16503/01]
My Department does not provide funding directly to the bodies set out in the question. In line with the White Paper, Supporting Voluntary Activity, £1 million is available to me in the current year for distribution, through local authorities in the context of county-city development boards, to community and voluntary fora. My Department has provided guidance for local authorities in relation to this funding, and this specifies that each forum should operate in a democratic, transparent and accountable manner. It also specifies, inter alia, that while local authorities will have reasonable flexibility and discretion in the use to which funding to support individual fora can be put, special emphasis should be given to the promotion of social inclusion.
Apart from the normal audit of local authority accounts which is carried out by the Local Government Audit Service, my Department will monitor the general arrangements put in place by local authorities for expenditure of the funds in question.
