Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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219. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the basis on which funding allocations were made in respect of the scheme to support national organisations; the selection criteria that were applied; when these criteria were not adhered to in some cases in the final allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42279/15]

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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The 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 in 2014. 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.

Each application was appraised against the following criteria: the capacity of the organisation; the strategic fit of the proposal within the SSNO; demonstration of need; the achievability of the proposal; and the value for money of the proposal.

The Recommendations Report for the Scheme to Support National Organisations was prepared by Pobal and presented to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in May 2014. Some 157 organisations applied for inclusion in the Scheme, with 154 valid applications being assessed by Pobal, and 3 deemed ineligible.

Funding was provided to all organisations recommended through the Pobal assessment process. The Minister at the time was anxious to make funding available to as many organisations as possible within the prevailing resource constraints. Having reviewed the recommendations and project applications, it was decided to award funding to 54 organisations in total.

In addition, the Minister at the time decided that funding should be provided to one further organisation, Irish Association for Supported Employment, in recognition of their provision of a unique service for disabled persons. This organisation had been funded under the previous SSNO.

Subsequently, my colleague Minister Kelly decided to provide funding to a further 32 organisations to alleviate the hardship that would arise from a sudden loss of funding and to ensure business continuity in the communities that these organisations served.