Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

The Government backbenchers did. Anyone who says that is telling lies. Government backbenchers have much speedier access to the type of information I have in front of me. Administration and costs are not the difficulty. The reason it is being moved is that the Government did not realise how much this fund held. In its first report, the dormant accounts fund board said it had no concept of how much the fund held. The Government saw this and simply could not resist it. It said "Good God, what are we doing allowing these people to disburse this fund when we could do it better." That mindset must be overcome. In many ways, Deputy Haughey said that, but not very clearly. This money will become Government funding. Instead of being additional funding to areas of disadvantage, it will now become the Government's contribution to areas of disadvantage for which it was never intended.

If we could hear the opinion of those whose money it is, that is, people who are long gone, they would agree it should go to child care, people with disability and to disadvantaged areas. I can only speak for Cork but child care in Cork city is in crisis. Meetings are being called and faxes are being sent because the funding for workers is being cut, yet this fund is supposed to be for child care. Child care is the last remaining barrier to women's full participation in society, yet funding for child care is being cut.

I was at a meeting last Monday night of a job search group in the Ard Bhaile complex in Mayfield, which is not a very affluent area. It was originally funded by FÁS and was set up by partnership. The funding is gone but the group needs an additional €51,000 to keep the doors open. For the past five years, the group has helped people from that area to find employment. It is making a contribution to the central purse and to society, yet it is being closed down. However, we constantly hear how great this Government is and of the progress made. It is easy to show progress starting from a zero base.

The Centre for Independent Living in Blackpool operates out of a former haberdashery shop which is totally unsuitable. We all know the difficulties people with motorised wheelchairs face. The centre has no other premises yet it must operate and provide a service to people with a disability in that north Lee area. It must meet certain people in hotels because it cannot bring them to the centre. Why has that problem not been resolved?

In regard to schools, I can only tell the Minister of State about one school, although I have a list of about 20. A school close to where I live has three prefabs which it has been using for the past 20 years. One of them is simply falling apart and cannot be repaired. The school applied for funding under the dormant accounts fund but since only €5.6 million was allocated last year and the board was swamped with applications, it was not even considered and was asked to apply again.

To say the dormant accounts fund is being subsumed into the Department because the board has a part-time chairperson and an insufficient number of staff is the lamest excuse I have heard in a long time. Surely, if someone is to do a critical job for the Government, he or she should have a sufficient number of staff. If the board needs a full-time chairperson, it should have one. The school I mentioned is in a RAPID area and serves three schools designated as disadvantaged. It is not as if it is outside the loop or does not qualify. I am not surprised the board has been unable to allocate more money because clearly the problem is an insufficient number of staff to process applications.

On 14 February last I attended a St. Valentine's Day ball, and I know the Minister of State will say "Isn't it well for you". It was a lovely night but that ball was a fundraiser for a school dealing with children with autism. The parents who attended had a difficult job trying to attend that night. Why must these people fundraise? Do they not have enough on their plate dealing with a family and a child with difficulties? Why must that school fundraise if so much progress has been made? Everyone who visits the school, including Deputies from the Minister of State's party, says how wonderful it is. Why do we not encourage such people? Why did they need to make an application for a pre-school of which no one appears to be taking any notice? Why is the Asperger association in Cork looking for a second level school? The dormant accounts fund was supposed to help people with intellectual disability or people with disability so why must they still fundraise? Why is no one taking any notice of their proposal for a pre-school and second level school? One father said to me that by the time they get the second level school his child will be too old, yet we have this fund which is supposed to fund such initiatives.

I am sure, like me, the Minister of State gets at least five telephone calls per week asking how people will manage an elderly parent who must go into full-time care. In Cork places for the care of the elderly are so limited that they are like gold. It has driven people to lengths to which they thought they would never go. A geriatrician, who sat on the board which produced the Hanly report, told people that they are in need of full-time care and attention, that they must not go home from hospital and that they must go into residential care but as they walk out the door of the hospital, they are given the forms for subvention for private nursing home care. Surely, this is a disadvantaged group. In future very few of us will be able to afford to pay fully for the type of care we need if we suffer dementia, Parkinson's disease etc., which is why we pay taxes and yet this is what is happening.

The care of the elderly is a boom industry in Ireland. The legislation before us will result in nothing more than a slush fund. It has been introduced because the Government did not realise the scale of what was available to it and now it intends to also raid live policies. I think the Minister of State is wrong and should not proceed for the sake of politics.

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