Yesterday I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of 26 disability and caring-focused organisations which had their money cut in its entirety under the grand scheme for national and community organisations. The impact of this has been devastating on the organisations concerned. Orla Hardiman spoke this morning on behalf of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. Chris Macey, the chairperson of the organisation, has written to us to state all 11 organisations in the Neurological Alliance of Ireland have lost their money in its entirety. This alliance, which advocates for 700,000 people with neurological conditions, will face closure by the end of the year.

I do not know whether the Taoiseach saw the clips on RTE yesterday with Christy Clarke from Drimnagh who has Huntington's disease. His wife Anne outlined very succinctly the challenges they face on a daily basis. With €26,000 a year the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland is in the position to provide a service for people with this very degenerative condition. This money has been taken from it. The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Chronic Pain Ireland and Multiple Sclerosis Ireland have also been affected, as have other such organisations which, for the past six years, have received funding through the scheme.

Something happened here and there was a recalibration of the scheme. I have done a bit of work on this. The feedback to the organisations is interesting. Pobal had no issue with the organisations themselves and how they went about their governance and work. It seems the criteria were changed, or the feedback was to such effect that one might be a better fit elsewhere or that one did not fit the particular criteria. This sums up the point I was trying to make yesterday. Interestingly, yesterday evening the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, stated to the Members of the House during an exchange that she was not informed about this decision by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Up to now 50% of the recipients of the scheme were disability and health organisations. Overnight this has been changed to one in eight. Clearly the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government decided somebody else should be funding these organisations and they cut them but did not tell anybody in government about it. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, acknowledged this yesterday evening, which goes to the heart of the lack of cross-cutting co-ordination.

Will the Taoiseach ensure full transparency and publish the recommendations made by Pobal to the Minister and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government on who should get funding? Will he also publish the Department's response? The appeals mechanism is somewhat vague because Pobal can only state whether an appeal is valid and it is up to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to find the money. The Government should find €1 million to sort out this mess. Otherwise 25 organisations doing invaluable work in the community will be homeless and without any basic resources to keep going. From a humanitarian perspective will the Taoiseach intervene and do what is right and provide €1 million to underpin the appeals process?

The Deputy has asked me to ensure full transparency and obtain the Department's response and I will. The funding scheme to support national organisations in the community and voluntary sector aims to provide multi-annual funding to national organisations. The funding scheme began in 2011 and was due to expire in December 2013. It was then extended to the end of June this year with a new scheme to commence from 1 July this year with an overall budget of €8 million. During 2013, officials in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government carried out a review of the scheme, as the Deputy pointed out. This review found the scheme has fulfilled its main objective of providing multi-annual funding to national organisations towards core costs associated with the provision of their services. The review recommended that organisations be required to clearly demonstrate the added value of the work proposed. The effective use of core funding in recipient organisations also requires that proper governance and proper cost control procedures are in place in the organisations.

The new scheme was advertised for applications during the first quarter of the year. Pobal was asked to undertake an assessment of the applications received and this process, from submission of applications to notification of successful applicants, took place during the first and second quarters of the year. As the Deputy knows, Pobal has significant experience in carrying out these assessments.

It is true to say a large number of the applicant organisations sought the maximum level of funding available or, in some cases, an amount in excess of the maximum funding available. As a result the number of organisations which could potentially be funded within the budget available was lower than for previous schemes. The Deputy always asks for more money to be put into something. The beginning of problems in other areas for many years was to throw money at a situation and hope it would go away. To make the funding available to as many organisations as possible in these difficult circumstances the situation was assessed and allocations were announced last week, on 3 July. A total of 157 applications were made and received by Pobal. Of these, three did not meet the basic eligibility criteria. The remaining 154 applications were assessed and appraised against the criteria as outlined in the application guidance. A total of 55 applications were approved for funding for the two-year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2016.

Pobal has put in place a dedicated team to deal with all inquiries from applicants and provide detailed feedback to applicants, which was the point of the Deputy's first question. There is also an appeals process and Pobal has provided detailed information to applicants on this process. The appeals process is now live and I advise the organisations mentioned by the Deputy and others to use the appeals process because they will receive all of the detailed information from Pobal. Some of the organisations which received money were Barnardos, which received €169,000, and the Children's Rights Alliance, Cherish Limited and Dublin Travellers Education Development, which each received €175,000. All of these have been published. The answer to the Deputy's question is we will ensure full transparency and a departmental response. I suggest to Deputy Martin that organisations such as those he mentioned, which do very good work, have detailed information available to them in regard to the appeal process from Pobal and they should use it.

The Taoiseach's answer is not satisfactory in any shape or form.

Of course it is not satisfactory to you.

This is the appeals document. Appeals were meant to be received in May 2014, but obviously the local elections took place and the grants were not announced until after the elections for obvious reasons. The Taoiseach did not want this out before the local selections because there would have been hell to pay if these 26 organisations knew then. At the end of the appeals document it is stated that all Pobal will do is recommend whether an appeal is valid, after which it will go to the Minister and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to make a final and binding decision.

A total of 26 organisations are affected and they are all in one sector, namely, disability and health. The Irish Deaf Society has been affected. It must close its Deaf Forward advocacy services because of this. All the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland would need to keep going is €25,000.

That is what we are talking about here. Someone somewhere took a decision to take out these organisations in recalibrating the criteria. They told nobody in the Department of Health. The former Minister, Deputy Hogan, did not tell the former Minister for Health or the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who has responsibility for disability, which is a basic thing to do in terms of crosscutting issues and co-ordination of disability. She said last night that she was not told. It is a mess. It is more than a mess; it is very wrong to do it to organisations.

This is a very low level of funding in any event. It is money whose multiplier effect is important. In some instances, it enables them to put stamps on the envelopes and keep an office going. It affects organisations such as Chronic Pain Ireland, the Huntington's Disease Association of Ireland, the Migraine Association of Ireland and Muscular Dystrophy Ireland. This needs ministerial intervention. The Taoiseach should get the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, around the table in order to take these organisations out of their agony and give them the prospect of closure. It needs to be sorted out before the end of the month to ensure €1 million is available either through the appeals or through the Department of Health.

Something happened in the dynamic between Pobal and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government that resulted in the decision to take these organisations out and to leave somebody else look after them. Somebody dropped the ball and nobody is looking after them now. It is unfair and wrong, and the Taoiseach should intervene to sort it out.

It is a criminal act.

I am sure the Deputy will agree that in the allocation of public money for any organisation, be it dealing with sensitive challenged issues such as this or otherwise, there is a requirement for proper governance.

I did not say there was not.

Please, hold on a second.

No one said there is any issue with governance.

Please.

I have already informed the Deputy that there is a live process for appeals by these people.

There is not much live in it with €8 million gone.

I am informed that Pobal has provided applicants with detailed information about the process of lodging an appeal. Some 155 applications were received and there is a fund of €8 million. Three did not meet the basic criteria and Pobal assessed these. The list including amounts received has been published. The Deputy has a basic philosophy of have enough money to give to everybody.

No, that is what the Government is doing. It is giving GP-visit cards left, right and centre now. We are talking about €1 million here.

It is the same philosophy that applied across the health boards for years-----

Where is the new Minister of State with responsibility for equality?

-----where Fianna Fáil forked out money it never had to deal with all kinds of organisations.

The Taoiseach can bury his head in the sand if that is what he wants to do.

I am not suggesting that any of these organisations did not and do not have a very good contribution to make.

Why did the Government do away with them?

There were 155 applications. The €8 million fund-----

Were representations made by anybody on behalf of some of the organisations? Was there interference?

Sorry, Deputy, please. We are way over time. Would the Deputy please-----

The Taoiseach might check that.