Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of 26 disability and caring-focused organisations which had their money cut in its entirety under the grand scheme for national and community organisations. The impact of this has been devastating on the organisations concerned. Orla Hardiman spoke this morning on behalf of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. Chris Macey, the chairperson of the organisation, has written to us to state all 11 organisations in the Neurological Alliance of Ireland have lost their money in its entirety. This alliance, which advocates for 700,000 people with neurological conditions, will face closure by the end of the year.

I do not know whether the Taoiseach's saw the clips on RTE yesterday with Christy Clarke from Drimnagh who has Huntington's disease. His wife Anne outlined very succinctly the challenges they face on a daily basis. With €26,000 a year the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland is in the position to provide a service for people with this very degenerative condition. This money has been taken from it. The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Chronic Pain Ireland and Multiple Sclerosis Ireland have also been affected, as have other such organisations which, for the past six years, have received funding through the scheme.

Something happened here and there was a recalibration of the scheme. I have done a bit of work on this. The feedback to the organisations is interesting. Pobal had no issue with the organisations themselves and how they went about their governance and work. It seems the criteria were changed, or the feedback was to such effect that one might be a better fit elsewhere or that one did not fit the particular criteria. This sums up the point I was trying to make yesterday. Interestingly, yesterday evening the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, stated to the Members of the House during an exchange that she was not informed about this decision by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Up to now 50% of the recipients of the scheme were disability and health organisations. Overnight this has been changed to one in eight. Clearly the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government decided somebody else should be funding these organisations and they cut them but did not tell anybody in government about it. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, acknowledged this yesterday evening, which goes to the heart of the lack of cross-cutting co-ordination.

Will the Taoiseach ensure full transparency and publish the recommendations made by Pobal to the Minister and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on who should get funding? Will he also publish the Department's response? The appeals mechanism is somewhat vague because Pobal can only state whether an appeal is valid and it is up to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to find the money. The Government should find €1 million to sort out this mess. Otherwise 25 organisations doing invaluable work in the community will be homeless and without any basic resources to keep going. From a humanitarian perspective will the Taoiseach intervene and do what is right and provide €1 million to underpin the appeals process?

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