Educational Endowments.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 May 2004

Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Ceisteanna (181)

John Cregan

Ceist:

212 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Education and Science about education and arts trusts which have run into difficulty in the past few years due to low interest rates, and in view of the fact that the normal payment and bursaries paid by these trusts are declining and in some cases cannot be met in recent years; if he will make suggestions, ideas or funds available so that the normal bursaries paid by these trusts could be continued; and if they have a record of the number of such trusts in their overall Ministerial area, if same could be quantified in relation to their capital value and in relation to their normal annual spend. [13530/04]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

My Department holds 28 educational endowments which have a capital value of €1.6 million. The endowments were set up for very specific educational purposes. Thirteen of the endowments were set up under the terms of the Education Endowments (Ireland) Act 1885 and 15 other endowments relate to bequests made to the State where the endower generally had an interest in a particular aspect of education or education in a specific area in Ireland. The payments to the beneficiaries are determined by the terms of the relevant endowment. Seventy seven other endowments are monitored or controlled by trustees and dividends are paid to them, where appropriate, by the commissioners for charitable donations and bequests. My Department has no role in the disbursement of funds from these endowments.

The funds for the endowments held by my Department are mostly invested in Government stocks which provide a reasonable rate of return. The disbursements for endowments held in my name are determined by the terms of the original bequests. Most of the endowments were made in the late 1800s and in the first half of the 20th century and the value of many of the bequests is now only nominal. As the bequests range in value the disbursements are determined by the capital sums held in trust. During 2003, €299,400 was paid out from the endowments.