Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the assistance that will be available from his Department for the newly established national advisory group on independent living. [10788/06]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not have primary responsibility for supporting the disabled. However, as I have recently indicated, an additional €5 million has been allocated to the community services programme in 2006 to fund new projects. It is my intention to expressly include services for people with disabilities in the eligibility criteria for new project funding. My Department is engaged in discussions with the Federation of People with Disability and with the Department of Health and Children to determine how best to complement existing services.

Responsibility for the social economy programme transferred to my Department on 1 January 2006. It has been renamed the "community services programme" to reflect the fact that I intend to change the nature of the programme from a labour market training scheme to a scheme which supports essential community services. In addition, disbursements of dormant accounts have a particular emphasis on disability. The Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board approved 109 projects under the heading of disability, totalling almost €18.4 million.