Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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259. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the extent to which he expects to be able to draw on the Dormant Accounts Fund to assist various bodies, groups or agencies in urban and rural areas engaged in the provision of community support services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46436/18]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The legislation governing the Dormant Accounts Fund provides a framework for the disbursement of funds for measures targeted at socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged people, and people with a disability.

The principles underlying the allocation of funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund, and the strategic objectives to be pursued by measures, are set out in three-year Disbursement Schemes.  The most recent Disbursement Scheme, covering the period 2017-2019 inclusive, was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in May 2017.

Annual Action Plans are then put in place, based on the principles set out in the Disbursement Scheme. As part of this process Government Departments are asked to identify proposals for measures consistent with the requirements of the legislation. The Annual Action Plan then details those measures which are approved for funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund. The most recent Annual Action Plan was published in July 2018. 

Any measures put forward by a Department must be provided for in the voted allocation of the Department. The expenditure incurred in implementing an approved measure is then reimbursed from the Dormant Accounts Fund. Each Department remains accountable for the administration of the programmes and schemes run under their remit using Dormant Accounts funding.

A number of measures under the remit of my own Department support groups working with communities. In particular there is a €2 million Social Enterprise measure, administered by Pobal, which provides for capital investment in social enterprises across Ireland. The Social Innovation Fund Ireland is also funded through the Dormant Accounts allocation of my Department, and this supports non-profits, charities and social enterprises in Ireland.