Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

It has been set out in the disbursement plan, drawn up the Dormant Accounts Fund Disbursements Board and approved by the Minister, that 40% of the moneys should go to disadvantaged areas, 25% to tackle educational disadvantage and 25% to fund disability projects and initiatives. If the Bill is passed, no guarantee exists that this money will go to these areas or to projects and organisations best positioned to ensure maximum delivery from such funding. The Fine Gael Party does not support this attempt to distort the workings of the dormant accounts fund. We have confidence in the existing board and its distribution structures. They work well and the board must be allowed to continue to fulfil the mandate given to it. If it is working efficiently, why change it? I have exposed the reasons.

I call on the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to fulfil the original tenets of the legislation. He must ensure that concerns raised by the former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, that the fund could be open to allegations of abuse are not realised. There is a real danger that the moneys will become nothing more than a political slush fund, open to abuse, maladministration and cronyism. The Minister must act in a responsible manner by withdrawing the legislation to ensure the integrity of the fund's distribution is upheld. The existing system is fast, efficient, working and transparent. The Minister must uphold this transparency and not let the fund fall prey to political considerations. He has a duty to ensure that it goes to those most worthy of it.

It is unbelievable that the Progressive Democrats, the other party in Government, tolerates such an approach. Obviously, it is contaminated too. I recall the Tánaiste in a previous life promising to amend and improve the disbursement of lottery funds. This has never happened even though she has been in Cabinet for seven years. The dormant accounts fund will be treated in a similar manner. It is not fair to those who left those moneys in banks or other saving institutions, did not collect insurance policies or died intestate. It was not their intention that moneys left behind would become a slush fund for a Government to buy votes in elections. For that reason, the Fine Gael Party opposes the Bill.

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