Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 12 Feb 2003

Vol. 561 No. 2

Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.

John Bruton

Ceist:

112 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the breakdown on an individual allocation basis for each of the measures included in his budget Estimates for 2003 under subhead J grants for community and voluntary service; the allocations sought on an individual basis and the cuts made on an individual basis to account for this reduction from ?34.9 million of ?25.9 million, a reduction of 16% for this budget heading; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3782/03]

David Stanton

Ceist:

142 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will make a statement on the community development support programmes, under budget subhead national lottery funded U1, outlining in detail the reasons for the reduction in expenditure from ?25.075 million to ?23 million as outlined in a document (details supplied). [3664/03]

Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (Mr. N. Ahern)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 142 together.

The breakdown on an individual allocation basis for each of the measures included in the budget Estimates for 2003 under subhead J, formerly subhead U, is provided in the following table. The table also includes details of the expenditures in 2002 and the amount sought in the Estimates for 2003 as requested by the Deputy. Subhead J1 includes the community development support programmes, grants to locally based community and family support groups, training and support services to the community and voluntary sector, funded under the White Paper for volun tary activity, national networks of federations of community and voluntary groups funded under the White Paper for voluntary activity, C and V supports for implementation and advisory group and funding for national organisations working for the re-integration of prisoners. The precise allocation of funding as between the individual schemes for 2003 has yet to be determined as this will be dictated by the level of applications for grants to be advertised shortly.

The figure of €25.07 million, which is mentioned in the briefing for a meeting in September 2002 with the estimates review committee, included provision for the family and community services resource centre, FRC, has in fact remained under the remit of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The scale of the reduction in funding to the community development support programmes is therefore less significant than figures suggests.

Subhead J

Programmes	Amount Spent2002€	Amount Allocated2003€	Amount Sought2003€
Community and Voluntary Support Programme (JI)	25,307	25,281	29,916
Scheme of Community Support for Older People	2,689	3,444	4,444
Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Protestant Aid	1,334	1,333	1,333
Cost of Conference	126	Nil	127
Fees and expenses of the Dormant Accounts Board	26	30	30
Grant to Community Foundation of Ireland	1,000	Nil	Nil
Total	30,482	30,088	35,850