Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate what the Minister has said and it is accurate to a point, but it is not the full story. I fully accept that people can see the exact location of money allocated by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport which made an announcement last week. I draw the attention of the Minister to other areas. He mentioned Appendix 1. The biggest Department receiving funds from the national lottery appears to be the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the biggest area is housing, probably comprising grants for elderly people and what used to be known as disabled person's grants, community facilities in housing projects and support for community and voluntary organisations. In the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht a lot of money goes to An Comhairle Ealaíon. Further amounts go through the HSE. Youth organisations receive approximately €50 million through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. In these cases what we see are lump sums. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government cannot state to which housing projects the money was allocated. It can state 20 housing projects were part-funded but not how much went where.

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