Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach to provide the total number of grant payments issued by the Department in each of the past five years, along with the total value of those grant payments for each year, in tabular form; and to confirm whether these figures include all schemes and discretionary grant programmes administered directly by the Department or through its agencies. [41066/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO) - the only body under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach - is funded by a grant allocation paid from the Department's Vote. The total value of grants paid to NESDO is published annually in the Department's Appropriation Account. Details of the grant payments in the past five years are set out in the table below.

The Shared Island Unit in the Department of the Taoiseach is progressing a wide-ranging research programme to examine the political, social, economic and cultural considerations of a shared future for all communities and traditions on the island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement.

In partnership with the Irish Research Council (IRC), the Department's Shared Island Unit funded two research calls - funding eleven projects in 2021 totalling €214,038; and eight projects in 2022 totalling €150,909. The aim was to generate new knowledge and perspectives to inform policy development and promote cooperation across the island. The IRC administered the funding following an application process.

The Shared Island Unit also partnered with the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South (SCoTENS) on a call for research undertaken over the period 2021 – 2023 to fund five projects amounting to €127,293 focussing on educational under-achievement and curriculum delivery.

Further information on these Shared Island projects is publically available at www.gov.ie/en/department-of-the-taoiseach/publications/shared-island-research/.

Neither the Department of the Taoiseach nor NESDO have directly administered any schemes or discretionary grant programmes in the past five years.