Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The scores are put in brackets. For example, the difference between getting seven out of 50 and eight out of 50 is not much. They are put in categories based on their score. After that, the Minister must have regard to the scores but then must make a decision. As Deputy Dooley stated, it is loaves and fishes. Sometimes one may find, for example, that one has €1 million for a particular county, the highest scoring project costs €1 million and one either gives everything to that or one decides not to fund that and to fund seven other projects instead. One may decide that one wants to distribute the funding better throughout the county or that one wants to ensure the different codes get some funding. The Minister must have regard to the scores and certainly cannot fund an ineligible application. I understand that under the previous Administration ineligible applications were funded. That has not happened under this Administration.

Roughly speaking, give or take 10% or 20%, amounts are allocated to each county according to its population and it is never the case that the county in which the Minister is resident can get twice the amount of funding of another country.

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