John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I will try to be as helpful as possible. The scheme fell into three sections, with refurbishment grants to upgrade premises used for community benefit in the ownership of the local community and voluntary organisations. That goes to 95%, up to a maximum of €60,000. There was also a maximum grant of €10,000 towards the cost of equipment for community facilities, with a third section being the training grant.

With specific reference to figures, we currently have 180 projects on hand. I decided to suspend it because it would be unfair to give groups and organisations an unrealistic hope of putting an application in where there may not be funding. The 180 have not been assessed but I anticipate that the current funding would be sufficient for these projects, if they are successful.

We have had to make some difficult decisions this year. Earlier, the Deputy spoke about trying to preserve funding for our community development projects. Deputy Byrne spoke about preserving funding for the task forces, and the likes of the task forces and competency development programmes will continue to provide front line services as they are being prioritised.

We could have looked at making alterations in other programmes I felt strongly about, including the scheme we run for elderly people with regard to monitored alarms. We have made an allocation for that programme and have not touched it. We have had to make difficult choices.

The Deputy asked if the scheme will be introduced again. It is suspended pending the take-up of the 180 projects. If there is funding left, the scheme will be introduced again. It would be unfair to communities to draw up proposals and apply for something when there may be no realistic prospect of receiving funding. It is regrettable that we are here but there must be priorities. My priority is to support the drugs task forces and community development projects that the Deputy has spoken about, as well as the monitored alarms for the elderly. That is why the scheme has been suspended.

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