Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

By way of background, I should remind the Deputy that the Ulster-Scots Agency is an agency of one of the six Implementation Bodies established under the British-Irish Agreement Act 1999. Therefore, the agency is accountable to the North-South Ministerial Council and to the Ministers in the sponsor Departments: the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland. The Ulster-Scots Agency is co-funded on the basis of 25% from my Department and 75% from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland. The North-South Ministerial Council approved an overall budget provision of €3,692,824 (£3,028,116) for 2011 and €3,251,103 (£2,828,460) for 2012 for the Ulster-Scots Agency.

While the 2013 business plans and budgets for the North-South Language Body are the subject of ongoing discussions between the sponsor Departments and will require formal approval by the North-South Ministerial Council, an overall allocation of €14.613 million has been allocated in the Revised Estimates for the North-South Language Body in 2013.

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