Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the amount spent by his Department from the proceeds of the dormant accounts fund in each year for the past five years to date; the extent to which he expects to have funds available to him from this source in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42883/06]

Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the end of year allocation of funding from the dormant accounts fund for 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42909/06]

Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the groups and projects he will prioritise in the upcoming round of funding to be allocated under the dormant accounts fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42850/06]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 42, 73 and 103 together.

Decisions on the disbursement of funds from dormant accounts under the initial round of funding were a matter for the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board, an independent body established under the Dormant Accounts Acts. Under this round, the board approved 521 projects for funding totalling slightly more than €60 million. To date, approximately €29 million of the €60 million approved has been paid over to groups, of which €4 million was paid in 2004, €8 million in 2005 and €17 million in 2006. It is anticipated that the remaining €31 million will be disbursed during 2007 and beyond.

Following the enactment of the new amended legislation in 2005, decisions on disbursements are now made by the Cabinet following a transparent process. In accordance with the legislation, the Government approved the allocation of €60 million from the fund in 2006 for the following purposes: €24 million to support projects tackling economic and social disadvantage; €18 million towards projects tackling educational disadvantage; and €18 million towards projects assisting persons with a disability.

To date in 2006, under the economic and social disadvantage category, the Government has approved funding of €17.5 million in support of 342 projects. In respect of the remaining funding measures under the economic and social disadvantage category, as well as measures relating to educational disadvantage and people with disabilities, further Government decisions can be expected in early 2007.

The rural social scheme, RSS, was launched two years ago to provide an income supplement to small farmers and part-time fishermen. A total of €32.4 million has been allocated to date from the dormant accounts fund to part-finance the RSS, of which €10 million was allocated in 2004, €6.4 million in 2005 and €16 million in 2006.

The priorities to be supported from dormant accounts next year are currently under consideration. In this regard, the legislation requires the Minister to consult other appropriate Ministers for the purpose of developing a proposal for submission to the Government for approval. This process is well under way and the intention is to submit a proposal early next year concerning the 2007 round of funding.

As for the amount that is expected to be available over the next five years, Members will be aware that the legislation provides for an annual transfer by credit institutions and insurance undertakings of moneys in dormant accounts into the fund. Since the establishment of the fund in May 2003, a total of €373 million has been transferred, of which €108 million has been reclaimed. At this juncture, it is difficult to say what the expected inflows to the fund will be on an annual basis. These details will only become available as the funds are actually transferred by financial institutions, which occurs once a year.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his fairly comprehensive reply. I am almost shocked that almost €400 million has already been transferred from these accounts to the Exchequer and that €108 million has been reimbursed. This constitutes a huge sum of money.

The funds are paid out under various headings to several areas of social deprivation. Does it all go through the Minister's office, or is it allocated to different Departments in which the decisions are then made? For example, if one wishes to apply to this scheme to develop something like a health centre in a particular locality, to whom does one apply? Does the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Minister for Health and Children or the Minister for Finance have ultimate responsibility? Is a single Minister responsible for distributing the entire amount?

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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As for the amount being huge, initially, some major payments were made. Subsequently, the fund was extended from financial institutions to encompass insurance companies, An Post and similar bodies. Hence, there were some very significant once-off inflows. In future, the amount of money accruing to the fund may not be so dramatic. I believe more people will reclaim their moneys as the accounts in question will only have become dormant recently and will not extend back 40 years. Perhaps €30 million to €40 million will accrue per year, with approximately €20 million flowing out on an ongoing basis. However, it will take a year or two before accurate figures in this regard can be compiled.

While the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is the lead Department, every decision regarding dormant accounts now goes before the Cabinet. In respect of the €60 million plan announced earlier this year, the €24 million allocated under economic and social disadvantage falls mainly under the aegis of this Department. A further €18 million was allocated under educational disadvantage and €18 million under disabilities, which is the responsibility of the Department of Health and Children.

However, all applications go before the Cabinet. The Deputy will have noted the various schemes announced by the Department during the year, all of which go before the Government when they are being independently assessed. One of the questions concerned the plan for next year, which will be approved by the Government. The individual sums of money go into the Votes of different Departments. While some of it goes to this Department, money for educational or disability-related projects would be transferred to a different Department's Vote. The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is the lead Department and takes the proposals to the Cabinet. However, everything is agreed at that level.

Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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To what extent does the Department keep statistics regarding the geographical distribution of the funding? This will be of great interest to many Members who wish to ensure the funding is spread proportionately nationwide in a fair and even manner. Moreover, to what extent have decisions on funding been made already with regard to 2007? How much of the funding in question is likely to be paid out before 30 June 2007? Anticipating such decisions would also be useful to Members.

I suggest that what the Minister of State described as an open and accountable system was argued against in this Chamber by Opposition Members, who would continue to so do. I accept the administration of the scheme in respect of informing Members of advertisements for funding allocations and the natures of the subsequent decisions made. However, my experience has been that, as individuals, Members have few powers of persuasion regarding how eventual allocation decisions are made or whether the Government is reconsidering how decisions are made in respect of allocations from the dormant accounts fund.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have no data to hand regarding geographic spread. Incidentally, however, some funding was announced last weekend regarding older people's facilities and I happened to perform a minor analysis on the allocation. When considered from the perspective of geographic spread, it was not carried out fairly. This pertains to independent assessment because if it was in my hands, or those of any other politician, a geographic spread would have been much more likely. If one looks at the analysis of what we announced at the weekend, which is on the website, there was one county, not a very large county, in which 17 different groups received funding. It was not in my constituency or in that of the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív.

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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He should tell us.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Kerry. I looked at the list with a particular Deputy and there was none from his constituency. I checked up on it and found there had been no applications from that midlands county. If a politician had his or her hands over all of this, we would be much more likely to look at how our colleagues might be influenced by it. If one looks at the funding measure for older people, one can see that it was not a political input.

Some counties, for whatever reason, have a better structure of community and voluntary organisations. The word must get out or else they have better partnerships who guide them on how to complete an application. I do not have exact data, but I saw it at the weekend.

These programmes are being announced all the time. Of this year's ones, there is still the one on IT to which I referred in the reply and the one for equipment for youth groups and scouts. Even within our own segment, the one on alcohol and all those advertised during the year will be announced early in the new year.

Then we had our overall flagship project. The Department of Health and Children is looking after the disabilities programme, the closing date for which was this month. The Department of Education and Science has not got very far yet with its project. Decisions are being rolled out all the time.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I understand that under the old regime the modus operandi on disbursements was that at the end of every year there would be an annual report showing where all the money went under different headings. Can we expect an annual report on how these funds are disbursed throughout the country?

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. There are data in the reply on the different categories to date — the number of projects and total amounts in the cases of the RAPID areas, support for vulnerable immigrants, support for the suicide prevention programme, supports for offenders and ex-offenders, and supports for older people. We listed the seven or eight headings we would address during the year. Those five have been announced and the other two or three are still being processed. All that information and all the decisions are available on the website. There will be complete data for anybody who wants it.