Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The public trustee is an official of the Department of agriculture. The function was created under the Land Act 1903. Effectively, there were sums of money that were being held in trust. I think there is a total of 148 trusts. They are obviously small at this stage but they would have been moneys put by for purposes under the Land Act such as, for example, protection of embankments where there may have been a risk of flooding or whatever. The sums of money are quite small. The total value of the trust is only about €1.8 million but they still exist and the turnover, as the Deputy can see, is very small. It is interest income on those trusts. To a certain extent, maybe it has been eclipsed as time has gone on. There might be a case of reviewing it but because it is set up under statute it can only be closed or discontinued under statute.