Vol. 542 No. 5
417 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the status of an application for grant assistance by persons (details supplied) in County Carlow; if any part of the grant has been paid to date; and the reason for the delay in dealing with the case. [25245/01]
I refer the Deputy to my reply of 9 October 2001 in which I detailed the current status of the application in question. I assure the Deputy that there has been no undue delay in dealing with this funding application. In March 2001, I approved a capital grant of IR£12,424, 15,775, to the persons in question. Following my approval of a grant, an applicant must enter into a contractual agreement with ADM Limited, acting on my Department's behalf. Prior to entering into a contract, ADM may seek additional information such as evidence of planning permission or evidence of matching funding. These issues are addressed in a pre-contract letter, which I understand issued to the applicants on 18 March 2001.
A reply was received from the applicants in May 2001. I understand that a number of contacts were subsequently made with the applicants to clarify certain points, in particular the issue of matching funding. Details of matching funding were received from the applicants on 1 August 2001 and ADM Limited issued the contract the following day. I understand that the signed contract was received from the applicants on 9 August 2001. A payment of IR£9,318, 11,831, which amounts to 75% of the total funding approved, was made to the applicants in September 2001. Once again, I would like to assure the Deputy that there has been no undue delay on the part of my officials in dealing with this particular case and I hope that the above clarification is of assistance to the Deputy.
