Dan Boyle
Question:3 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on the recommendations of the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursement Plan 2002-2005. [28694/03]
Ceisteanna – Questions. Priority Questions. - Dormant Accounts Fund.
The Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board is an independent statutory body under the aegis of my Department. The board presented its disbursement plan to me for approval this summer and following detailed consideration of the plan, including consultation at Cabinet level, the plan was approved by me on 30 September, subject to a number of amendments.
I welcome the recent publication of the board's plan and the commitment to allocate €30 million annually to assist the personal, educational and social development of persons who are economically, educationally or socially disadvantaged or persons with a disability.
In particular, I am very satisfied that a significant level of allocations from the fund will be targeted at programmes or projects within RAPID, CLÁR and drugs task force areas. I strongly believe that a reasonable proportion of the moneys available should be directed towards projects in areas designated by Government as experiencing particular social and economic disadvantage.
I am also very satisfied that funding for persons with a disability is to be prioritised towards those requiring more intensive levels of support in the areas of health and personal social services. This will have a very positive impact on the lives not only of those with a disability, but on their families as well. In addition, the inclusion of IT as a measure to tackle disadvantage is important in promoting access to – and competence in – technology, in particular for young people in disadvantaged areas and for persons with a disability.
The challenge now facing the board is to implement and give practical effect to the plan. In this context, the Deputy will be aware that the board has engaged Area Development Management Limited, ADM, to administer the initial round of funding on its behalf. An invitation to organisations, groups, etc. to make applications for funding under the scheme was advertised in the national press on Friday last, 21 November. ADM will receive and assess applications for funding and make recommendations to the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board for decision.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Does he accept that the establishment of the fund was accompanied by the hope that the moneys disbursed from the fund would be additional funding? Even though the recommendations are valid and will be gratefully received, the Government may have avoided the responsibility of providing funding directly from the Exchequer for many of these areas. While the recipients of the money may care little about its source, this is an account with a very short shelf life. Many of the areas to which the funding is being provided require committed ongoing funding.
The Government has a responsibility to state its long-term priorities in many of these areas. We had exactly the same problem with the establishment of the national lottery, resulting in many areas receiving funding from the lottery rather than from the Exchequer. Subsequent Governments had to change policy on that also. While this fund is useful now and in the short-term, it is no substitute for the Government's responsibility for proper funding in all these areas.
Every Government has to make decisions on income and expenditure. It is not possible to spend what is not earned. The budget on all headings in my Department has increased by 5%. As the inflation rate is 2.3%, we are keeping ahead of inflation. Since most of the social and economic money from this fund is going to CLÁR and RAPID areas next year, there are significant increases in the CLÁR funding for next year. I have also set up a totally new RAPID fund of €4.5 million. Not only are we doing this within the dormant accounts fund, but we are also doing it within the Department's budget.
During the year I promised I would focus on the areas of greatest disadvantage. For obvious political reasons we kept widening the pool covering area partnerships etc. According to the people who designed them, these are meant to be for the areas of great concentrations of social disadvantage. It was clear there was a need to pull it back into those areas by taking a number of steps. We made sure that part of the dormant account fund was ring-fenced for RAPID. We established the new RAPID fund of €4.5 million. I accept the rest of it – the current money – was there under another heading. There is a concentrated effort to significantly increase the funding, particularly for RAPID areas and also for CLÁR areas.
The 5% increase includes the increase for wages under benchmarking and other pay related matters, which I understand to be 8% in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The real increase in the Department is not spectacularly high, as is the case across all Departments. The amount available to the Department for disbursal this year differs little from the figure for last year. This will frustrate the expectations of communities for direct Exchequer funding from the Department. Does the Minister accept that while this money is valuable in the short-term, it is not a replacement for ongoing policy to provide a proper level of funding in all of these areas through direct Exchequer support?
Of course it is not. We must provide Exchequer funding. I accept absolutely that the level will be small. It is important that we secure additionality, both in regard to dormant accounts and also on the other side.
My Department is lucky in regard to the benchmarking issue as I am not responsible for many staff intensive sub-bodies. A great deal of money goes to people on the ground. If the Deputy examines the Estimate for my Department, he will notice that the amount in the subhead for administration is down next year, despite benchmarking. There is no way he can say benchmarking is eating up my departmental funds. Because of this, there is a 6% increase in some of the major subheads under the community, rural and Gaeltacht headings. There is more than 5% in some due to the very tight ship we run on the administrative side where every possible saving is made. One will not find administration or benchmarking gobbling up the extra finances given to my Department.
The principle of what the Deputy said is true. I hope that when he gets into government – which is unlikely – he will make sure that there will be additional funding.