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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 Dec 1998

Vol. 497 No. 6

Written Answers - Grant Schemes.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

199 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the nature of each grant scheme operated by his Department since the formation of the Government; the objective of the scheme; and the name of each body or individual grant aided under each scheme. [25943/98]

The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs operates a range of programmes of support for community groups, including grant schemes for voluntary organisations; locally-based community and family support groups the community development programme and the money advice and budgeting service. The objective of these schemes is to enable disadvantaged communities to work in a practical way to address the issues that face them, to foster greater self-reliance and community leadership and to support a process of community and personal development in disadvantaged communities. Support in the form of grant aid is also provided to voluntary marriage and child counselling services.

The community development programme was established in 1990 in recognition of the role of community development in tackling poverty and disadvantage. The programme provides financial assistance to projects towards the staffing and equipping of local resource centres which provide a focal point for community development activities in the area and to other specialised community development projects and initiatives having a strategic importance.

The aim of a family and community services resource centre is to help combat disadvantage by improving the functioning of the family unit. Centres can provide special services for lone parent families, young mothers and others considered in need of extra support and can act as a first step to community participation and social inclusion for the most vulnerable and marginalised families. There are currently 27 centres participating in or in the process of being set up under the programme.
Recognising the important role played by these centres in supporting families, this programme has been expanded in 1998 and an additional £700,000 provided to this end.
The total provision in 1998 for both the community development programme and the family and community services resource centre programme is £7.759 million, representing an increase of £2.159 million over the 1997 allocation.
For many years my Department has also provided assistance to voluntary and community groups through a range of once-off grant schemes. These grant schemes concentrate on a wide range of support for local self-help groups, community development, welfare rights and information work, and on the provision of seed money to enable community groups to pilot initiatives identified as meeting new and emerging community needs.
As many of the groups funded under these schemes provide supports for the family, my Department has, in 1998, introduced a new integrated scheme of grants to locally-based community and family support groups, integrating the former schemes of grants to locally-based women's groups, locally-based men's groups and lone parent groups. In addition, the Department continues to provide funding under the once-off scheme of grants to voluntary organisations and the community development education and training grants scheme.
The total budget in 1998 for the scheme of grants for locally-based community and family support groups, including those groups that receive core-funding, the community development education and training grant scheme and the scheme of grants to voluntary organisations, is £2.825 million, representing an increase of £100,000 on the amount provided in 1997.
My Department also operates the scheme of community support for older people, the purpose of which is to provide funding for initiatives to improve the security and social support of vulnerable older people. A sum of £5 million has been allocated to the 1998 scheme.
Through the provision of the money, advice and budgeting service the Department is directly involved in activities to combat moneylending and over-indebtedness. Forty seven projects, providing advice and education to the local community in relation to money and debt management, have been established throughout the country. The allocation to this scheme for 1998 is £3.143 million, representing an increase of £943,000 over 1997.
This year, my Department took over responsibility, from the former Department of Equality and Law Reform, for providing support by way of grant aid to voluntary organisations providing services in marriage counselling and child counselling in relation to parental separation. A total of £1.5 million was allocated for these grants in 1998, an increase of £600,000 in the funding for the previous year.
Grant aid to voluntary organisations providing marriage preparation courses and bereavement counselling and support services is also being made available under this scheme in 1998.
The Department provides grants to voluntary sector organisations towards the cost of welfare rights and information services and also to assist with once-off innovative information projects designed to increase awareness of the social services generally. The allocation for 1998 was £500,000.
The back to work allowance was introduced at the same time, as an incentive to ease the transition of the long-term unemployed back into the workforce.
Employment grants, under the employment support service set up as part of my Department's proactive approach to long-term unemployment, aim to encourage self employed people on the back to work allowance to employ an unemployed person, also on the back to work allowance. The grant amounts to one third of the 75 per cent rate of back to work allowance payable over 12 months and is payable in two instalments. This year to date, 171 grants have been paid, totalling £258,730.
Grants paid under the employment support services relate to individuals and cannot be released without the beneficiaries consent. Details of the total funding provided under the various programmes and once-off grant schemes have been made available to the Oireachtas Library each year since 1990. Details of the total funding provided in 1998 under each scheme and programme will again be provided to the Oireachtas Library at the relevant time.
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