Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Children's Rights Alliance's presentation. It contains excellent material and raises very important issues in respect of the rights of the most vulnerable group in society. I and some of my colleagues on this committee have raised the issue of funding cross-Border projects with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, and with the Northern Ireland Finance Minister, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir. At that time there was concern about the British commitment to fund projects up to 2020. Subsequently, the British Chancellor gave a commitment that the funding is secure and the Secretary of State, Mr. Brokenshire, assured us at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting in November that the funding is safe and ring-fenced. My colleague, Deputy Breathnach, and I attended a meeting of the North-South Interparliamentary Association at Stormont and afterward we met Máirtín Ó Muilleoir who was strongly of the view that the funding is secure. Deputy Breathnach and I then raised the matter with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe. Given the doubts about the availability of funding in the next few years, I told him that some community groups would not put a great effort into preparing applications when funding might not be available. We all know that a lot of preparatory work is involved for voluntary and statutory organisations before drawing down EU funding. Before Christmas, the Minister told me to let him know if any groups had concerns about the security of the funding they expected, or hoped, to draw down after the processing of applications and said he would try to assist as much as possible. If there are projects it would be useful to bring them to our attention and we could raise them directly with the Minister. I commend the Children's Rights Alliance on its work. The issues the witnesses raised are of great importance to all of us.