Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 September 2018
71. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the details and progress of projects earmarked for Galway city and county under the Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38597/18]
View answerI have a specific question on the details and progress of projects earmarked for Galway city and county under the Dormant Accounts Action Plan 2018. I ask this with the background that a substantial amount of the dormant accounts has been underspent while community groups are crying out for money. I ask for this to be clarified in the first instance.
I thank the Deputy for her question. The 2018 Dormant Accounts Action Plan, which was published in July, approved funding of up to €39.7 million for 45 different measures across ten Departments. In line with the provisions of the Dormant Accounts Acts, the measures identified in the action plan target social, economic and educational disadvantage and people with a disability.
The approved measures will support a wide range of projects and programmes relating to issues such as social inclusion, assisting migrants, support for carers, speech and language therapy, support for dementia sufferers, and sports measures. The majority of measures will commence in 2019, subject to Voted expenditure being available in each relevant Department.
With regard to funding for projects based in Galway city and county, most of the measures in the action plan are national scale programmes, for example, sports measures for disadvantaged communities, a baby box measure through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, and education and employment initiatives for disadvantaged communities. The funding for specific geographic areas will only become clear as the measures are implemented on the ground. However, while the delivery of measures is a matter for each relevant Department, I would expect such measures to impact throughout the country.
In my Department, the measure to support ICT utilisation among older people will involve the delivery of a pilot programme in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. The measure to support enterprise and digital hubs along the Atlantic economic corridor will also benefit Galway city and county directly.
The dormant accounts have been the subject of discussion at the Committee of Public Accounts and the Department has tried to take hold of them in recent months. Departmental officials have done an amount of work. This is the third change of Department with responsibility for dormant accounts. It has taken quite a while to get to the bottom of previous commitments, moneys not spent, decommittals and the rest. We published a comprehensive action plan in July. It is a rather complex programme and the projects can only be delivered from the action plan through a vote on the Estimates for each Department. Any project listed in the action plan must be funded thorough the Estimates of that Department.
I thank the Minister of State for trying to clarify the situation. I have read the action plan but I am not any wiser about Galway city and county. The Minister of State is telling me it will take a further Vote. I do not know what projects are earmarked for Galway city and county. There was more than a discussion with the Comptroller and Auditor General. He pointed out that over the period from 2012 to 2016, Departments spent €28.7 million, less than half of the amount provided in the Estimates, mainly due to a lack of preparedness. The Minister of State will agree we have a serious problem. Money is available but less than half of it has been spent. I wrote to the Minister of State in my capacity as a Deputy about a particular organisation in Galway, which I will not mention. Clearly, community groups and organisations are crying out for money but we have a 50% underspend. It took a very long time to conduct the recognised statutory review and it took a long time to publish the action plan but I am still no wiser as to what projects are earmarked for Galway city and county. Will the Minister of State try to spell them out for me? He stated some of them are national projects that will have a positive impact on Galway. What are the projects for Galway city? If there is none, tell me so.
The plan published is across ten Departments so the initiatives really are for the ten Departments. I have listed some of the measures for the Department of Rural and Community Development. The Deputy should ask each relevant Department whether it has the funding in the Estimates process. Over the summer, the Minister, Deputy Ring, departmental officials and I had discussions with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, to try to put in place a simpler process for the spend but the fact is the €39 million plan that has been published must still go through the Estimates process to ensure an equivalent amount is in the Estimates of every Department to fund the listed project initiatives. I suggest the Deputy table specific questions for those Departments that have sponsored initiatives because this question has come to the Department of Rural and Community Development. I have listed some of the measures under the remit of the Department with regard to ICT utilisation, the Atlantic economic corridor and other initiatives for which we have direct responsibility. Other Departments have responsibility for their own programmes.
I did table a specific question but for some reason it became a general question. There must have been a misunderstanding somewhere in the Questions Office. I took the trouble of getting the action plan and going through it. Since it was so general, I asked a specific question about the Department of Rural and Community Development but unfortunately the question is general across all Departments. It was not my intention to ask that question. I asked specifically about the planned projects under the remit of the Department of Rural and Community Development. I read page 47, which mentions social enterprise, senior alert schemes, new volunteer centres and young social innovators. These are all very worthy but I cannot explain to anybody in Galway city or county what projects are going ahead next year or how we can make it easier for them in terms of access. I am thinking in particular of the organisation about which I wrote to the Minister of State with regard to autism. I will not go into the details. It is crying out for money. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General there is an underspend and we seem to have a very complicated system. I think the Minister of State is nodding in agreement, which is welcome, but we really need to push this forward so we can use the money.
I agree it is a very complex system, which is why we have tried to get to the bottom of it. I again put on record the work done by staff in the Department in trying to get to the bottom of this. We had meetings over the summer with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. I thought it was going to be easier to be able to spend the money but, unfortunately, there is still the process with regard to the votable element of this.
I cannot give the Deputy information on some elements with regard to Galway city and county. The initiatives for volunteer centres do not cover Galway city or county because they are for eight specific counties where volunteer information centres are being converted to volunteer centres. There are other initiatives across the board with regard to the Departments of Children and Youth Affairs; Transport, Tourism and Sport; and Rural and Community Development. I can get more clarity with regard to the Department of Rural and Community Development but I suggest the Deputy tables specific questions to the other nine Departments to ask them what projects they have listed for Galway city or county.
