Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2004
616 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which her Department has awarded grant aid to individuals, bodies, groups or institutions in each of the past two years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17883/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere are four grant aid schemes administered by my Department:
Special Projects Fund
The special projects fund provides supports to unemployed people needing additional help to progress to further training and employment. The amounts and numbers of projects involved are as follows:
|
Year |
Amount(€) |
No. of Projects |
|
2002 |
1.9m |
180 |
|
2003 |
2.12m |
200 |
|
2004 to date |
0.7m |
80 |
Second Chance Education Opportunities
Grants can be awarded to organisations for the development and promotion of second chance education opportunities. A total of €325,000 was awarded under this scheme to six organisations in each of 2002 and 2003. No grants have yet been awarded in 2004.
Information Grants
Grants are paid to organisations and groups involved in dissemination of information on social welfare rights and entitlements generally. The amounts paid are as follows:
|
Year |
Amount (€) |
|
2002 |
0.7m |
|
2003 |
1.1m |
|
2004 to date |
0.9m |
Family Services Project
Grants can be awarded to local projects involved in the provision of information and support services for families with difficulties. Expenditure under this project amounted to €87,000 in 2002 and €1.35 million in 2003.
Special Grants
This year, the tenth anniversary of the UN International Year of Families, I announced a special awards scheme to fund projects and events to celebrate the role of the family. Some 950 applications have been received under this scheme.
To mark this special year I also announced a once-off payment of €100 to parents of babies born on Leap Day, 29 February 2004.
Family Support Agency
The Family Support Agency, which was established on 6 May 2003 is responsible for a scheme of grants for marriage, child and bereavement counselling, which prior to the establishment of the agency, was administered by my Department. Total funding since 2002 under this scheme is as follows:
|
Year |
Amount (€) |
No. of organisations |
|
2002 |
6.7m |
466 |
|
2003 |
7.0m |
460 |
In addition, I recently approved grants totalling €7.5 million to 523 organisations to be issued shortly.
The agency also administers grants to more than 70 family and community resource centres throughout the country. The budget for this scheme is as follows.
|
Year |
Amount(€) |
|
2002 |
5.1m |
|
2003 |
7.0m |
|
2004 |
8.4m |
