Vol. 543 No. 5
413 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands if sufficient resources are available to the Heritage Council to enable funding of the various applications made by public and private agencies; the extent to which the need as defined by such applications has been met in terms of the financial allocation to her Department in 2001; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27740/01]
The Deputy will be aware that the Heritage Council under the Heritage Act, 1995 is an independent statutory body exercising full autonomy in relation to the purposes for which, the amounts, and the extent of grant aid which it chooses to administer.
As is evident from the published figures in the annual volumes of the Revised Estimates for the Public Services funding for the Heritage Council increased this year by some 44% to £7.986 million as compared to the allocation of £5.531 million in 2000. Funding has increased by 167% since I came into office.
