Following the reductions in the CE training and materials grant announced in the Budget, the Department of Social Protection commenced a review of the financial resources of individual schemes. This review is scheduled to be completed by the end of March.
All sponsors have been contacted by Department officers at local level to brief them on the review, discuss their returns and deal with any queries that the sponsors may have. The submissions will be made to these officers.
As part of the contract between my Department and CE sponsors full details of the sponsor's CE bank account must be available for monitoring and control purposes. Significant advances from public funds are paid into CE sponsors bank accounts and my officials have a duty of care for these taxpayer's funds. In addition the requirements of the Company Registration Office ensure that the amount of funds in the bank accounts of CE sponsors must be returned on an annual basis.
As this is a financial review, and given the requirement for savings, all possible sources of income/funding for the project must be identified.