Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2002

Vol. 554 No. 5

Written Answers. - Departmental Programmes.

Mary Upton

Ceist:

429 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Finance the individual non-governmental organisations funded or grant-aided under the various schemes run by his Department; the amount provided; and the purpose for which it was provided, in the last full year for which information is available. [16718/02]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

The following non-governmental organisations received funding from the Department of Finance under the various schemes and grants-in-aid operated by the Department:

Civil Service General Council Staff Panel: €15,000 (2001)

This amount represents a contribution towards the operating expenses of the Civil Service General Council Staff Panel. The panel is the umbrella body for all Civil Service trade unions and performs a co-ordinating function in relation to claims submitted by individual unions.

Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI:€2,378,000 (2001)

The ESRI is a private limited company which receives a grant-in-aid to support the provision, by the Institute, of independent economic and social research in the public interest.

European Institute of Public Administration, EIPA: €55,000 (2001)

The EIPA receives a contribution from Ireland to support its activities of providing training to European public officials.

Irish Institute of European Affairs, IIEA, Louvain: €25,395 (2001)

The IIEA receives a contribution towards its role as an independent policy research institute dedicated to the study of European integration and in particular its effects on Ireland.

Institute of Public Administration, IPA: €2,472,000 (2001)

The IPA is a private company limited by guarantee and receives grant-in-aid to support its provision of training and research for the public sector in Ireland.

Euro Changeover Board of Ireland, ECBI, NGO Programmes

The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland ran programmes under which non-governmental organisations, NGOs, were part-funded to help meet the costs of activities undertaken to promote awareness of the euro. NGOs were defined as non-profit-making organisations and included registered charities, voluntary, community and vocational organisations, trades unions and business and trade organisations. State bodies and organisations were not included.

The 2000-01 NGO programme covered activities in the period from 1 November 2000 to 30 June 2001. The 2001-02 programme covered activities in the period from 3 May 2001 until 31 December 2001, or 9 February 2002 in relation to organisations dealing with people with special needs. The organisations in these programmes are given at appendix 6 of the board's fourth annual report, a copy of which is being forwarded to the Deputy – in each programme, a small number of the organisations listed at appendix 6 did not in the event claim/qualify for payment. The amount issued for payment under the 2000-01 programme was €707,998 and under the 2001-02 programme was €926,267; in addition, funding was provided separately to the National Council for the Blind of Ireland in respect of talking converters for visually-impaired people.

Payments to the Promoters of Certain Charitable Lotteries

These payments are made to certain charities to compensate for the loss of income that they suffer as a result of having products which compete with the national lottery – all figures refer to 2001:

	€
Associated Charities Trust Ltd.	67,542
Asthma Society of Ireland	70,437
Drogheda Community Services	81,874
Gael-Linn Teo	514,621
Hanly Centre	67,913
Irish Cancer Society	383,964
Irish Wheelchair Society	50,999
Liffey Trust Ltd.	43,516
Polio Fellowship of Ireland	383,964
The Rehab Group	5,839,918
Mulranny Day Centre	13,952
West of Ireland Alzheimer Foundation	99,729
Total	7,618,429

INTERREG Funding

The Department of Finance administered European Regional Development Fund funded grant schemes to projects for general economic development under the INTERREG II Ireland-Northern Ireland and Ireland-Wales Programmes. INTERREG is an European Regional Development Fund funded programme to promote cross-Border co-operation and development, and the INTERREG II programmes covered the period 1994 to 1999, with expenditure incurred up to the end of 2001 being eligible for grant funding. A general requirement for projects approved for grant funding under these Programmes was that expenditure had to be cross-Border in nature – projects had to involve two partners, one on each side of the Border under the Ireland-Northern Ireland Programme, and project partners in Ireland and in Wales under the Ireland-Wales Programme.

Payments under the Ireland-Wales INTERREG II Programme were made to chambers of commerce, exporters' associations, colleges and institutes of technology, business centres, enterprise agencies, arts centres and regional authorities, etc., in order to fund cross-Border projects, which established new links and co-operative economic development on both sides of the Irish Sea. The total amount of payments to these bodies in 2001 was €888,254 in respect of 27 projects.

Payments under the Ireland-Northern Ireland INTERREG II Programme were made to small and medium enterprises, business networks, local transport initiatives, third level bodies, city councils and cross-Border partnerships etc. in order to establish linkages for cross-Border co-operation and the economic development of areas on both sides of the Border. The total amount of payments to these bodies in 2001 was €735,274 in respect of 18 projects.