Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wonder why we did not get notice in advance of the inclusion of a new section 7 as outlined by the Minister of State. We should have been alerted to the fact that it is proposed that money will be transferred from the fund to pay off the national debt. That seems to go against the idea of what we are doing in the Bill and why we are raising revenue, which is to provide for local authority services and the maintenance of roads and networks. What is proposed seems wrong. I do not believe that many people understand that this is happening. I certainly do not agree with this money being used to pay off the national debt. There are other ways to do that. I just felt I needed to say that.