Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For Senator Coffey's information, the voted expenditure this year is identical to the voted expenditure in 2008, so one would have expected that when the Government got the expenditure up from the 2008 level, funding for programmes for those at a disadvantage would be at least as high as in 2008. That is the basis of the point I am making and that is why I picked the year 2008. Our expenditure then was identical. I refer to voted expenditure, which does not account for debt servicing or any other expenditure.

By comparison with 2008, the Government's priority for SICAP seems to have reduced tremendously. In Dublin, between four authorities, the figure is a little over €1 million per authority. Has there been an analysis of the impact this is having on the disadvantaged? Furthermore, of the €43 million, how much is spent on plain administration and how much is for the actual delivery of services for those at a disadvantage? This was a concern in the past.