Mr. Joe O'Flynn:

I certainly would share the disquiet about the use of some of the fund for the purposes which the Deputy outlined. If we had control of the fund we would not have approved a lot of the expenditure. Our view is that if public money is provided for a particular purpose it should be used for that purpose and should be spent in a transparent and accountable manner. I was as concerned as anybody else when I heard the facts.

Some of the expenditure was used in a manner which was clearly outside the scope of the fund. Even if we were aware of the fund, some of the expenditure was outside its scope. While the administrator has claimed moneys were refunded and so forth, it was hugely inappropriate that moneys were used for some of the purposes outlined.