Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of associations, organisations and regulatory bodies in receipt of grants, benefit in kind and sums of money from the State in tabular form for the past three years; if he is satisfied that the State should be financing such organisations; if he will undertake to examine the savings that can be made in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28920/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Details of grants paid by the Department of Social Protection to regulatory bodies and other organisations providing services on its behalf in the past three years are set out in the table below.

The three statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department are the Social Welfare Tribunal, the Citizens Information Board (CIB) and the Pensions Board. In addition, the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman comes under the remit of the Department.

The grant payments relate mainly to the CIB and the Pensions Board. In 2009, the Department made grant payments to the Family Support Agency as well as individual Money Advice and Budgeting Service companies which were subsumed into the CIB in 2010. The Combat Poverty Agency was incorporated into the Office of Social Inclusion in the Department in July 2009 and transferred to the Department of Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs in March 2010. The Family Support Agency is now under the aegis of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Responsibility for the Office of Social Inclusion transferred back to this Department in May 2011.

I am satisfied that the State should continue to finance the organisations that currently receive funding from the Department. I am also satisfied that appropriate steps have been taken to secure savings in the areas of responsibility of the organisations in question.

Tabular Statement