Under the Dormant Accounts legislation, balances on dormant accounts with banks, building societies and An Post and the net encashment value of certain life assurance policies are paid into the Dormant Accounts Fund, which is managed by the National Treasury Management Agency. The primary purpose of the legislation is to re-unite the original account holders with their moneys, including all interest due. In addition, the legislation also provides that disbursements from the fund may be made for charitable purposes or for purposes of community benefit.
Since its establishment in April 2003 to the end of January 2014, the transfers to the Dormant Accounts Fund have totalled some €724m, which includes interest earned of approximately €39m. Funds reclaimed in that period by account holders amounted to around €273m. Around €277m of disbursements have been approved, with some €252m already spent on projects designed to benefit the community over the same period. The current balance of uncommitted funds is €108.48m. Further data in relation to Dormant Accounts funding are available on my Department’s website at http://www.environ.ie/en/Community/DormantAccounts/.
The details requested are set out in the table.
Dormant Accounts Expenditure from 2008 to 2013*
Year
|
Disbursed by NTMA
|
2003
|
0
|
2004
|
€14,000,000
|
2005
|
€14,400,000
|
2006
|
€33,250,000
|
2007
|
€45,511,412
|
2008
|
€73,050,705
|
2009
|
€37,644,335
|
2010
|
€20,267,035
|
2011
|
€8,403,338
|
2012
|
€4,159,969
|
2013
|
€1,486,993
|
*The data for 2013 have not been finalised by the NTMA.