Northern Ireland dormant accounts charity scheme launched

An account is considered dormant if it has seen no customer activity for 15 years

A dormant accounts charity scheme for Northern Ireland has officially been launched by the Department of Finance.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said the £20.5m fund will open for applications on 12 January.

Dormant bank accounts are legally defined as those that have seen no customer-initiated activity for at least 15 years.

In other parts of the UK this money has been going to charities for more than 10 years.

However, in Northern Ireland attempts to develop a scheme became embroiled in political wrangling and it was eventually agreed to establish it last year.

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The money will help fund community and voluntary services that would not normally attract public money in a programme overseen by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Multi-year grants of up to £100,000 will be available to build organisations' resilience and sustainability, Mr Murphy said.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said the £20.5m fund will open for applications on 12 January

The minister said the Dormant Accounts Fund could be "used as part of the longer-term recovery from Covid".

Mr Murphy added that the scheme "provides a real opportunity for a range of organisations including community and voluntary groups and social enterprises to access funding".

"It's anticipated that funding will be awarded for between one and three years," Mr Murphy said.

Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken, who chairs the assembly finance committee, welcomed the statement and noted that the matter was first raised in 2008.

"The wider community and voluntary sectors will be keen to access these funds," he said.

Kate Beggs, The National Lottery Community Fund's NI director, described the launch of the fund as a "milestone for the community and voluntary sector" in Northern Ireland.

"While 2020 has been a year of emergency funding, we know many organisations are trying to plan for the long term and thinking about the changes they need to make to become more sustainable," she said.