Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 March 2004
108 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will provide a greater proportion of funding from dormant accounts to areas outside the RAPID and CLÁR areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7732/04]
View answer109 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs when the proposed legislation dealing with the changes to the dormant funds board will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7627/04]
View answer112 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the reason section 36 of the Dormant Accounts Act 2001 cannot be changed to provide additional staff to the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board; his views on whether the disbursement report issued by the board was compromised by the lack of administrative staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7652/04]
View answer120 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the position regarding the implementation of the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003; the estimated amount of money likely to be transferred to funds from unclaimed life assurance policies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7703/04]
View answer125 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if €10 million has been paid by the disbursement board to the rural social programme; if its consent has been given to the payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7707/04]
View answer128 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the reasons behind the proposed change in rules for the allocation of money from the dormant accounts fund; the reason the Government has decided that it alone will have the final decision on allocations rather than the independent disbursement board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7685/04]
View answer145 Ms Enright asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs when the proposed legislation dealing with the changes to the board will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7654/04]
View answer170 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the role he will play in allocating moneys from the dormant accounts fund. [7718/04]
View answer177 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if, in the light of the severe cutbacks to community development projects contained in the Revised Estimates for 2004, such as local development and social inclusion by 6% and the young people’s facilities and services fund by 27%, if he accepts that dormant account funds will be used to top-up these initiatives, thereby undermining the promise that the latter funds would be used as additional and not substitute funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7681/04]
View answer189 Mr. Kehoe asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he can guarantee the independent disbursement of moneys from dormant accounts board once its decision-making responsibilities are transferred to the Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7653/04]
View answerI propose to take Question Nos. 108, 109, 112, 120, 125, 128, 145, 170, 177 and 189 together.
At present decisions on disbursement of funds from dormant accounts are a matter for the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursement Board. It is an independent body established under the Dormant Accounts Acts.
The board is currently deciding on the disbursement of funds of up to €30 million. To date it has approved 18 projects for funding totalling approximately €1.7 million. Approximately 500 applications have been received to date and they are being assessed on an ongoing basis by ADM on behalf of the board. The Government has not and will not be involved in decisions about these applications.
In December 2003 the Government reviewed arrangements for dormant accounts. Three practical considerations for doing so are as follows: the board's organisational arrangements involve a handful of seconded civil servants in a secretariat role and are not designed to support disbursements on the scale now emerging; governance arrangements, including the legal requirement that a part-time chairman should be accountable for millions of euro, are inadequate; to ensure value for money the fund must be co-ordinated with priorities identified by Government and debated in this House.
The Government does not consider that increasing the number of the board's administrative staff would adequately address the governance and policy issues arising. It believes that the objectives of the disbursements scheme, as set out in the board's first disbursement plan, should remain unchanged. In other words, funding to assist programmes or projects targeting the following three broad categories of persons: those affected by economic and social disadvantage; those affected by educational disadvantage; and persons with a disability.
The plan was published in November 2003 and appropriate administrative supports were provided for its preparation by the board.
The Government's decision of 18 December 2003 provides that decisions on disbursement of funds would be taken following a transparent application and evaluation process. Appropriate arrangements would be put in place so that spending from the fund would be clearly separate to the Estimates provision.
The Government proposes key roles on advising, monitoring and planning in the area of dormant accounts for the board, with particular regard to the following: advising on priority areas to be considered annually for funding; preparation of the disbursement plan; and reviewing, evaluating, and reporting on the effectiveness, additionality and impact of disbursements.
This year draft legislation will be introduced with a view to giving effect to these decisions. I expect the legislation will be published over the coming months.
A second transfer of funds from credit institutions, together with the first transfer of moneys from life assurance policies, will take place at the end of April 2004. At this stage I cannot estimate the likely yield from these sources in 2004 but the sum will become clearer at the end of April.
Last December the Minister wrote to the board's chairman about an additional €10 million for the rural social scheme and the board responded in writing. The process was undertaken in accordance with the terms of the Dormant Accounts Act 2001, as amended. Arrangements for the scheme are currently being finalised.
Under the disbursement plan a significant level of allocations from the fund are being targeted at programmes or projects within RAPID, CLÁR and drugs task force areas. No proposals are currently envisaged to change the arrangement.
I shall now answer the question about funding for initiatives such as the local development programme and the YPFSF. In 2004, under subhead L in my Department's Vote a sum of €42.144 million was provided for local development and social inclusion measures. Last year's funding under the same subhead was €44.662 million. A budget of €1.5 million to support the implementation of the RAPID programme was included in the figure. This year the funding is €5.8 million, including capital, and is reflected in a new separate subhead in the Department's Vote, subhead O2. Therefore, a comparison of both subheads is not appropriate.
Funding for drugs initiatives in 2004 will not be reduced. The difference in provision — as outlined in the 2004 Revised Estimates — arises from the mainstreaming of successfully evaluated services projects from round I of the YPFSF. As many as 85 projects were positively evaluated and have been mainstreamed with effect from 1 January 2004. As a result €6.705 million was transferred to other Votes. The Department of Education and Science received €6.594 million and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform received €0.111 million. They are now responsible for the continued funding of the projects in question. I intend to announce round II allocations under the fund in the very near future.
