Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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523. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason no funding has been awarded to Muintir na Tíre under the scheme to support national organisations, as recently announced, in view of the vital role Muintir na Tíre plays in rural communities; if his attention has been drawn to the effect this will have on this long standing national organisation; if he has received an application for emergency funding from this organisation to enable them to function while a review is sought of this decision in view of the late date the decision was given on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31548/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The funding scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector aims to provide multi-annual funding to national organisations towards core costs associated with the provision of services. A new round of funding was advertised for applications earlier this year. Pobal was asked to undertake an assessment of the applications received, given that organisation's significant experience and expertise of both the design of assessment criteria and completion of assessment functions. My predecessor was anxious to make funding available to as many organisations as possible within the preva iling resource constraints and approved 55 applications for funding for the two-year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 J une 2016. Muintir na Tíre is not one of the organisations approved for funding on this occasion. A letter has been received from this organisation requesting emergency funding. However, the budget to provide funding under the Scheme for 2014 has been fully allocated and does not include provision for interim funding. A reply has issued to the organisation in this regard.

Pobal has put in place a dedicated team to deal with any inquiries from applicants and to provide detailed feedback. There is also an appeals process and Pobal has provided applicants with detailed information on this process. As this appeals process is now live, it would not be appropriate for me to make any further comment on the funding process or on the application of any particular organisation.