Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

A cross-departmental committee was set up this year on the dormant accounts fund and this was one of the projects mentioned. We have €60 million to spend this year, of which €24 million was spent on social and economic disadvantage. The next programme will probably cost €30 million and if the Deputy recommends it and we get good feedback, we will consider the project next year. We were delivering two years' worth of funding this time.

I accept that only 20 applications received money out of 125 applications. We did not decide the assessment criteria as we hired an outside agency, Pobal, which made recommendations based on its criteria. We did not change the recommendations as they came in, but they liaised with the National Office of Suicide Prevention. I accept that many of the groups that received money seemed to be fairly professional and that Pobal went for those applications rather than smaller community applications.

The National Office of Suicide Prevention was set up in the last year and it received €1.2 million in funding for its own work. The Department of Health and Children spends about €800 million on mental health per annum. This funding was put forward as a suggestion to help community groups and I am sure it will be considered again next year. The overall funding may be smaller, but that depends on the response and the reaction to what we have done.

See this speech in context