Written Answers to Questions - Northern Ireland Assembly

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Friday 20 July 2012 Written Answers Arrangements for the recruitment of the Victims and Survivors Service Board and Chair, as well as the post of Chief Executive, are well advanced. We are committed to continuing to work hard to ensure that the Victims Service provides the best service possible and that victims and survivors receive from it the support they expect and deserve. Sexual Orientation Strategy Mr McKay asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister whether they can confirm that the Sexual Orientation Strategy will be published before the end of 2012. (AQO 2294/11-15) Mr P Robinson and Mr M McGuinness: We aim to publish the Sexual Orientation Strategy by December 2012. Strategy for A Shared Future Mr McClarty asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister how they intend to continue updating the strategy for A Shared Future, following the withdrawal of the Alliance Party from the cross-party Cohesion, Sharing and Integration working group. (AQO 2295/11-15) Mr P Robinson and Mr M McGuinness: The withdrawal of the Alliance Party from the cross-party working group on CSI has not affected our determination, or that of the other political parties, who continue to work together to make progress on a new community relations strategy. The CSI working group continues to meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and each member of that group, led by the two Junior Ministers, is working hard to achieve political consensus on the range of issues required to underpin a finalised strategy. Summer Intervention Programmes Mr Boylan asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister what funding their Department has committed to Summer Intervention Programmes for this year. (AQO 2296/11-15) Mr P Robinson and Mr M McGuinness: Our Department has committed £500,000 to the Summer Intervention Programmes for 2012. This money is broken down into two tranches; £100,000 is transferred to Belfast City Council to administer, and £400,000 is transferred to the Department of Education (DE). The money transferred to DE is then administered by the Education and Library Boards. Additional money is also spent on summer intervention work by the District Councils, through the District Councils Good Relations Programme. Compositely, these resources have been utilised to support activities with our young people at those times of the year when tensions can be at their highest. Northern Ireland Memorial Fund Mrs Dobson asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister if they are aware of the security and privacy concerns amongst relatives of ex-servicemen and women in relation to (i) the new means tested assessment criteria when applying to the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund; and (ii) their reluctance to provide personal and financial details previously not required to access funding, (AQW 13712/11-15) WA 442
Friday 20 July 2012 Written Answers Mr P Robinson and Mr M McGuinness: Any information given to the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund is held securely and treated with the utmost care and discretion. The requirement for means testing and provision of personal and financial details has been in place in the Memorial Fund since November 2010. The Memorial Fund has had no contact from ex-servicemen or women raising concerns in relation to this issue. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Applicants for the Rural Borewells Scheme Mr Ó hOisín asked the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development what consideration was given to people on means-tested benefits, when deciding upon the criteria used to assess applicants for the Rural Borewells Scheme. (AQW 13151/11-15) Mrs O’Neill (The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development): The Rural Borewells Scheme is an innovative scheme to help those living in isolated rural areas that do not have access to mains water and where accessing the public water mains is not technically or financially possible. Developed in collaboration with DRD the scheme will offer up to £10k towards access to a wholesome water supply through the installation of a Borewell or treatments works for domestic dwellings built prior to 2000. This is a pilot scheme which will be reviewed at the end of Year 1 so that we can learn from any issues identified and evidence gathered. I will keep means testing under consideration. Funding to Forest Service Mr Weir asked the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to detail the funding provided to the Forest Service in each of the last five years. (AQW 13287/11-15) Mrs O’Neill: The final Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget allocation provided by the Department to Forest Service and the Agency’s reported outturn for each of the financial years 2007/08 to 2001/12 is provided at Appendix 1. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting standards applied for the 2007/08 and 2008/09 financial years and therefore these figures are not comparable with 2009 onwards. The accounts from 2009/10 onwards have been accounted for under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) with the budgets allocated on that basis. The net resource operating expenditure shows the cost of forestry operations excluding the grant payments, non-cash costs and capital. This cost was £1.1m in the 2011/12 year and represents the subsidy that is required to support the non-commercial recreation visitors to our forests, with entrance charges only levied for the nine Forest Parks (£1m). The total budget allocation shows the final total departmental expenditure limit budget allocated to the Agency for each of the 5 years. WA 443
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RWA 4
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Written Answers to Questions - Northern Ireland Assembly

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