asked the Minister for Finance if he will establish a provision in the allocation from national lottery funds that any organisation which receives an allocation for a specific purpose and fails, without good reason, to spend that allocation within 12 months, may forfeit the allocation in order that the money may be transferred to other purposes.
Written Answers. - National Lottery Funds.
29.
The expenditure of lottery funds is determined by the Government and voted by the Oireachtas on an annual basis. If funds are not used in the year in which they are allocated, they cannot be spent unless they are voted again in the following year. I can assure the Deputy that the Government before deciding on a carry-forward of lottery allocations to a subsequent year takes full cognisance of the reasons for failure to use the allocations on the year in which they were first made.
The conditions of the Amenity Grants Scheme, administered by the Minister for the Environment and for which £6 million was allocated, require that reasonable progress towards the commencement of work on the project must be in evidence within six months from the date of allocation of the grant. If not, the grant may be cancelled. Similary, the Recreational Facilities Grant Scheme operated by the Minister for Education, for which £4 million was allocated, provide that where construction work has not commenced within three months of the date of the provisional grant allocation, the allocation is liable to be withdrawn.
These two schemes have now been amalgamated into a single scheme under the control of the Minister for the Environment and it is intended that the terms of the combined scheme will include a similar provision.