Niall Collins
Question:733. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding a review of an application for ERF funding (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13812/14]
View answerTuesday, 25 March 2014
Questions (733)
Written answers
Pobal is responsible, on behalf of my Department, for carrying out calls for and assessing applications for ERF grants. It is open to unsuccessful applicants to seek a review of the decision on their application. A staff member from Pobal who was not involved in the original decision is assigned to undertake the review. The recommendations of the reviewer are considered by the Pobal Appraisal Sub-Committee and submitted to my Department for final decision. I can confirm that a review of the decision referred to in the Question is under way. The outcome of that review will be communicated to my Department in the near future. I am also advised that Pobal sent the applicant a copy of revised guidelines for the review process after she had already submitted a request for a review but that the only major change in these was that the time for submitting a review request was extended from 10 to 20 working days. In the light of this change, the applicant was offered the opportunity to resubmit her review request on this basis. This opportunity was declined and Pobal therefore proceeded to process the request that had been submitted. The criteria on which applications were assessed were published at the time of the call and were: capacity of the applicant; need for the project; outcomes for the target group; strategic fit; and value for money. The geographic location of the applicant was not, of itself, a criterion.