A charity providing transport services to people with disabilities is set to benefit from the Dormant Accounts Disbursements Board.
Vantastic, a registered charity operating in the Dublin area, will receive € 145,000 from the board to purchase additional transport vehicles for its work.
Established by the Government in 2003, the Dormant Accounts Disbursements Board redistributes monies in credit institutions and insurance undertakings that have remained unclaimed by their owners.
It has so far allocated € 30 million a year to charitable causes. The purchase of the vehicles is to be funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Vantastic, which also receives funding from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, will expand its fleet of accessible vehicles from 12 to 16.
The organisation employs 30 people and provides a door-to-door transport seven days a week.
It expects to complete 20,000 passenger trips this year.
"The expansion of the Vantastic fleet to 12 vehicles is a fine example of how this Government is continually upgrading, expanding and creating services and facilities for the benefit of as many people as possible in these target groups," Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon O'Cuiv said yesterday.
"We are delighted that these funds have helped us acquire several new vehicles which in turn will help us step up capacity and frequency of our services to members," Cormac Moloney, general manager of Vantastic said yesterday.
Vantastic will also co-ordinate a support programme with Cork Accessible Transport to develop a similar service for people with disabilities in the Cork city area.
