Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has asked me to ensure full transparency and obtain the Department's response and I will. The funding scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector aims to provide multi-annual funding to national organisations. The funding scheme began in 2011 and was due to expire in December 2013. It was then extended to the end of June this year with a new scheme to commence from 1 July this year with an overall budget of €8 million. During 2013, officials in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government carried out a review of the scheme, as the Deputy pointed out. This review found the scheme has fulfilled its main objective of providing multi-annual funding to national organisations towards core costs associated with the provision of their services. The review recommended that organisations be required to clearly demonstrate the added value of the work proposed. The effective use of core funding in recipient organisations also requires that proper governance and proper cost control procedures are in place in the organisations.

The new scheme was advertised for applications during the first quarter of the year. Pobal was asked to undertake an assessment of the applications received and this process, from submission of applications to notification of successful applicants, took place during the first and second quarters of the year. As the Deputy knows, Pobal has significant experience in carrying out these assessments.

It is true to say a large number of the applicant organisations sought the maximum level of funding available or, in some cases, an amount in excess of the maximum funding available. As a result the number of organisations which could potentially be funded within the budget available was lower than for previous schemes. The Deputy always asks for more money to be put into something. The beginning of problems in other areas for many years was to throw money at a situation and hope it would go away. To make the funding available to as many organisations as possible in these difficult circumstances the situation was assessed and allocations were announced last week, on 3 July. A total of 157 applications were made and received by Pobal. Of these, three did not meet the basic eligibility criteria. The remaining 154 applications were assessed and appraised against the criteria as outlined in the application guidance. A total of 55 applications were approved for funding for the two-year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016.

Pobal has put in place a dedicated team to deal with all inquiries from applicants and provide detailed feedback to applicants, which was the point of the Deputy's first question. There is also an appeals process and Pobal has provided detailed information to applicants on this process. The appeals process is now live and I advise the organisations mentioned by the Deputy and others to use the appeals process because they will receive all of the detailed information from Pobal. Some of the organisations which received money were Barnardos, which received €169,000, and the Children's Rights Alliance, Cherish Limited and Dublin Travellers Education Development, which each received €175,000. All of these have been published. The answer to the Deputy's question is we will ensure full transparency and a departmental response. I suggest to Deputy Martin that organisations such as those he mentioned, which do very good work, have detailed information available to them in regard to the appeal process from Pobal and they should use it.

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