Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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115. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the amount of funding and-or grant aid his Department has made to an association (details supplied) from 1 January 2008 to 2017 and to date in 2018; the purpose for which the funding and-or grant aid was released to the association; if the way in which the funding and-or grant aid is used is audited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50067/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has funded the Football Association of Ireland during the period 2017 to date through both the Emigrant Support Programme and the Reconciliation Fund.

The UK Welfare Officer programme was established in 2008 and was supported jointly by the Football Association of Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade’s Emigrant Support Programme (ESP).

The programme provided assistance, support, advice and counselling services to Irish players aged 16+ that moved to the UK to become involved in the UK professional football game.

To ensure ongoing quality control, and in addition to ongoing monitoring and evaluation of projects based on reporting by organisations and visits by Missions, the Department commissions a number of on-site, external audits each year. As set out in the 2015 ‘Global Irish: Ireland’s Diaspora Policy’ we are working to commit 1% of the ESP budget to quality assurance, including the annual programme of evaluation and audits.

The following table lists the total amount of funding granted through the ESP to the FAI since 2008.

All grantees awarded funding through the Reconciliation Fund are required under the grant’s terms of agreement to submit a post-grant narrative and financial report demonstrating how the grant was spent, as well as the organisation’s accounts for the relevant year clearly showing the grant as a separate item of income. The grant’s terms of agreement provide for auditing spot-checks to be undertaken by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on a number of grants made through the Reconciliation Fund in a given year. The Comptroller and Auditor General also carries out a number of spot-checks on Reconciliation Fund grant payments on an annual basis.