Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 575: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their award under the criminal injuries compensation tribunal; the funds which were made available from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 2005 for this tribunal; the number of applications made to the tribunal; and when the necessary funding to compensate the persons who have been awarded money under this tribunal will be provided. [19026/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The criminal injuries compensation tribunal is funded as a cash-limited grant scheme by my Department. The allocation for 2005 is €3.384 million. A total of 96 applications were received by the tribunal to end May this year.

Unfortunately, the allocation provided for 2005 is now exhausted and the tribunal is not in a position to issue payments. Under the terms of the public financial procedures, entitlement to payment under a cash limited scheme is always contingent on the availability of funds.

This funding situation has come about as a result of the timing of one particularly large award in 2005 rather than a fundamental under-provision for the scheme. As a result of these exceptional circumstances, my Department is actively examining the possibility of making an additional provision in the short term to meet claims on hand. This solution will require the approval of the Department of Finance and is dependant on realising savings elsewhere in the Vote but I hope to be able to put in place the necessary arrangements in the near future.

The applicant referred to by the Deputy has been approved for an award and although his case cannot immediately proceed to payment for the above reasons, I expect that his would be one of the cases which would be covered by the proposed additional provision.