I would advise the Deputy that the group in question submitted a staffing grant application to the child care directorate in December 2001.
All applications are assessed initially against the programme criteria by the Area Development Management Limited and are examined by the programme appraisal committee, chaired by my Department, which makes a funding recommendation to me. Support towards staffing costs is only made available to community based projects which can show that they are addressing disadvantage and are assisting disadvantaged parents who are in employment, education or training.
On the basis of the information available to it in relation to this project, the programme appraisal committee did not recommend funding of this project, because it did not rate highly under the criteria in terms of tackling social disadvantage.
The group has lodged an appeal against my decision in April 2003, and ADM Limited is currently assessing any new or additional information in support of its application.
In the interim, it would be premature of me to comment further on this appeal.
Questions Nos. 663 and 664 answered with Question No. 615.