Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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Question 197: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if his Department has given funding to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul from 1998 to date in 2005; if such funding was given by his Department, to supply the details thereof and the conditions attached by his Department, relating to its proper distribution thereto. [36108/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Provision has been made in the Revised Estimates Volumes, published since the establishment of my Department for annual payments to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Under these provisions, my Department has paid the society €1.27 million annually in 2002, 2003 and 2004. A further payment for 2005 is being prepared. Prior to the establishment of my Department an annual amount was paid to the society by the then Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. The funding is expended in accordance with needs as assessed by the society in the light of requests for support received. Annual reports and audited accounts are received each year from the organisation, which acknowledge receipt of funds from this Department. As in the case of all voted moneys, funding provided to the society is subject to routine audit by my Department's internal audit unit. The internal audit unit has an internal audit strategy in place and undertakes its work on a risk analysis basis.

In addition, my Department has paid the society €127,000 in respect of a conference research support and development project subject to the submission of satisfactory progress reports and expenditure breakdown. Individual conferences of the society received €540,000 under the scheme of community support for older people in respect of 2002, 2003, and 2004 and €22,700 under programme of grants for locally-based community and voluntary organisations over the same period. My Department requires that groups awarded funding in respect of the scheme of community support for older people and for the programme of grants for locally-based community and voluntary organisations provide receipts to the total value of the grant awarded and a statement signed by the chairperson and treasurer to the effect that the grant was used for the purpose it was awarded.