Vol. 503 No. 3
473 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the amount of money made available in 1999 for the community alert programme and neighbourhood watch pro gramme; the resources spent on these programmes in each of the years 1997 and 1998; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9742/99]
I am pleased to inform the House that I allocated a grant of £80,000 to Muintir na Tire in December 1998 to partly fund the cost of employing the development officers who organise the running of the community alert programme nationwide. The House may be interested to know that Muintir na Tire also received a grant of £65,000 in June 1997.
Neighbourhood Watch does not receive any funding directly from the Department but it receives considerable support from the Garda Síochána. As such, the Garda have met many of the costs associated with operating the scheme such as the costs of funding for publicity material. In June 1997, 50,000 Neighbourhood Watch booklets were produced at a total cost of almost £7,000 of which AMEV Insurance sponsored half. In July 1998, 500,000 Neighbourhood Watch stickers were produced at a cost of approximately £13,500. The majority of the costs associated with the programme are opportunity costs, such as the Garda time devoted to the project and it is not possible to quantify this.
