Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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390. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government how much funding allocated to local authorities in 2014 and 2015 for Traveller housing was not recouped and sent back to his the Department. [13200/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, housing authorities have statutory responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller Accommodation Programmes (TAPs) in their areas. My Department’s role is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist the authorities in providing such accommodation, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding.

The first three TAPs covered the periods 2000 - 2004, 2005 – 2008 and 2009 – 2013. Local authorities adopted the fourth and current round of TAPs in April 2014, with the five-year rolling programmes running from 2014 to 2018. These programmes provide a road map for local authority investment priorities over the period. They also form the basis for the allocation of funding from my Department for Traveller accommodation. Local authorities submit proposals for individual Traveller-specific projects and developments, which are assessed on a case-by-case basis in my Department in advance of allocations being made.

The capital allocations and amounts recouped in respect of Traveller-specific accommodation for the years 2014 and 2015 are set out in the following table. Local authorities are requested to submit quarterly profiles of expenditure to my Department and these are closely monitored against actual expenditure. If, during the year, a difficulty is identified in drawing down the funding allocated for a particular scheme, it will be allocated to another scheme. A provision of €5.5m for Traveller-specific accommodation is in place for 2016, an increase of €1.2m on the 2015 allocation.