Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has had discussions with the former First Minister, Mr. Peter Robinson, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr. Martin Mc Guinness, in the Northern Ireland Executive in relation to the non-allocation of the Social Investment Fund; the total financial provision made available in respect of that fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36761/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Questions relating to the management of the Social Investment Fund are devolved matters that are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive.

My Department oversees the Reconciliation Fund which provides grants to organisations working to further peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, on a cross-border basis, and between Ireland and Britain. Over 140 organisations received support from the Fund in 2014.

In the course of my Department’s work on promoting reconciliation on the island of Ireland, we are complementing many of the aims and goals of the Social Investment Fund which seeks to bring the benefits of the peace process to communities across Northern Ireland in terms of social and economic development. Our work on promoting reconciliation, a fundamental aim of the Good Friday Agreement, involves contacts with community groups as well as with the Northern Ireland Executive, including the Office of the First Minister and the deputy First Minister.