My Department has responsibility for the administration of the scheme of community support for older people (CSOP). Under this scheme, funding is directed through voluntary groups towards the provision of socially monitored alarms and small-scale physical security equipment, to older vulnerable people in the community.
Under the 2002 CSOP, various regional offices of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, who administered the scheme on behalf of my Department in 2002, received applications from the organisation referred to by the Deputy.
It is a condition of the scheme that payment can only issue where expenditure of previous grants has been fully accounted for. My Department, in association with the Department of Social and Family Affairs, has initiated an inspection of the books, records and returns of the organisation mentioned in the Deputy's question, specifically in relation to the usage of grants paid to that organisation under the 2000 CSOP scheme. When this issue has been resolved, consideration will then be given to further grant aiding the organisation.
All other applications that came within the remit of the scheme were processed and paid before the end of 2002.
Invitations to apply for funding under this scheme in 2003 will be advertised in the national and local papers later in the year.
