Vol. 543 No. 4
5 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the number of applications received in her Department for funding under the arts and culture enhancement support scheme; the number of projects being grant-aided; the total grant approved for each project; and the plans she has to consider unsuccessful applications. [27302/01]
My Department received 180 applications for funding under the arts and culture enhancement support scheme known as ACCESS. I established an independent committee to evaluate all eligible applications, and this committee recommended 53 projects, equivalent to £45 million in grant aid, as worthy of support. However, the funding available for the ACCESS scheme comes to a total of £36 million, and I could therefore approve only 44 of the recommended projects, which accounted for all of the available £36 million. A table listing the grant aid offered in respect of each project will be furnished to the Deputy. Should any of the successful projects not proceed, I will consider the position regarding reallocation of funds to the remaining projects recommended by the committee.
I thank the Minister for her answer. This was a very imaginative and excellent scheme, of which the proof is the high number of applications received from all areas of the country, amounting to 180 in total. Some 44 projects were grant-aided. Unfortunately, many who went to the trouble of applying were disappointed on this occasion. Will the Minister indicate if there will be another tranche of access funding or is this is a once-off measure?
I thank the Deputy for his generous remarks. Such a fund was necessary as there was no such fund in the Department for capital spending after the CDIS ran out in 1999. That was a successful scheme and it was important to initiate another that would continue to build up the infrastructure of arts venues around the country. The Deputy is right to say that there were 180 applications. If all of those had been grant-aided, it would have required £224 million for the scheme.
Some 44 projects were recommended and all the money has been allocated. However, if there should be a situation – I do not know of this – where one or more of those projects should fall by the wayside and not be completed, and where money is therefore available for reallocation, I will look at those projects that were unsuccessful in coming through the independent process that I put in motion.
I thank the Minister for her reply. Does she agree that Clare, the native county of my colleague, Deputy John Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny), has been extremely fortunate in the disbursement of these funds? His native county had more projects sanctioned than any other and almost 10% of the entire allocation. I do not know if Deputy Browne had anything to do with the success of the county. Is it purely coincidental that Clare is the adopted county of the Minister in a political sense? Perhaps Clare had better applications than any other county, and these merited so many projects being grant-aided.
We were able to facilitate some 23 counties in this particular round which assisted 44 projects. We tried to look at the geographical as well as the community element. There was a tough procedure and criteria that had to be fulfilled for these projects. Deputy Browne's native county is Clare and he will have been pleased to note that six projects were chosen that county. However, 14 applications were made from that county that did not get through the independent process. Any project that did not get through that process could not be and was not considered by me.
