Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 221: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will provide details of all bodies, committees or groups under his Department or under any of the agencies within his Department's remit associated with social partnership which were established in the past 15 years; the details of all funding allocated to these bodies in that period; and the details of all funding provided to social partnership bodies or persons associated with such bodies during the period and the purpose of these allocations. [40712/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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My Department provides support to various groups involved in social partnership. Grants are provided towards the administrative and general expenses of a number of organisations and bodies that provide information, research or representative services in the housing area. This funding assists such organisations in the delivery of housing objectives and services.

Funding is provided through the Irish Environmental Network for ecological, environmental non-governmental organisations in respect of core activities, capacity building, research, training and participation in social partnership (the Environment Pillar of social partnership was established formally in 2009). The Network also receives funding to support its role during Biodiversity Week.

Grant aid is provided to An Taisce as a contribution towards the administration costs of the Blue Flags scheme, the international award for water quality and beach excellence, and for the operation of the Green Coast Awards, which recognise beaches of high environmental quality. Funding is provided for Coastwatch Ireland which is an environmental NGO working towards informed public participation in planning, protecting and managing the coastal zone.

In addition, under the various national social partnership agreements, workplace partnership was introduced and implemented successfully in the local government sector. To assist in this process and support a range of initiatives, funding was provided on an annual basis at central level to, and disbursed by, the Local Authority National Partnership Advisory Group (LANPAG) that is comprised of management, trade union and Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government representatives.

Details of funding of these bodies are set out in the following table.

Data are provided above in respect of 2004 to 2010. My Department introduced a new financial accounting system in 2004 and the extraction of information from the previous accounting system in respect of the expenditures involved would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work.