Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Equality Authority was established in 1997 with an annual budget of €378,000. It now has an annual budget of €5.9 million, although it has been reduced this year. Over its 11 years of existence, the authority has received funding of €47 million. I will comment on the proposed cut. I can give some suggestions. I am not in any way trying to kill off the Equality Authority, which does very good work. As I said earlier, I am not engaging in a post hoc justification of this measure. I decided three months ago to concentrate on prisons and tackling crime. That is what I said.

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