Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Ethics graduates or even communications graduates given the current turmoil. That provision does not exist in the 1999 legislation so the Minister might consider specifying the areas in which scholars would be qualified when they come.

The Minister might give an indication of how many additional scholars will come to the country in light of the additional funding. In recent years there have been ten or 12. Are we talking of 20 or 24 scholars? The Government must be clear and give us a breakdown of the additional numbers who will come as a result of this additional funding.

Will the Minister give us a breakdown of numbers of scholars who have come to attend the two universities in Northern Ireland and the seven universities in the Republic and whether any of them have gone to our institutes of technology? We have a responsibility to see where these scholars can go throughout all of our colleges, North and South.

The matching funding is key in the delivery of the public funds that the State is making available. Is there information concerning whether those private funds have been obtained so the public funds can be used for the purposes as set out under the Act?

The US-Ireland Alliance should be applauded for the exemplary work it has done since this legislation first came before the House. It has provided a professional service in selecting high calibre US students to come here. We are now moving, however, to a new period, where the financial sums involved are considerable. The €2 million funding that provided in 1999 will now be €20 million, with a maximum of €4 million each year. With that, accountability must take centre stage.

I welcome the fact the legislation provides for an annual reporting mechanism and a much clearer distinction between the private investment fund and the other administrative fund. In these new times, we have an obligation to squeeze as much as we can from the administration budgets in the semi-State sector or the Department of Education and Science. Every euro we commit to this new fund is used for the purposes as set out.

Will the Minister set out during the debate how much of the funding available goes to the administrative side? As we move into this new financial underpinning, it is crucially important those issues of reportage, accountability and ensuring administration are kept to a minimum and are surveyed by Government, which will have a duty of due diligence when the legislation is ultimately passed.

On behalf of Fine Gael and my colleagues, we welcome this as an important step in the right direction that will recognise the Irish-US connection that has been worth so much to this country. That connection must flourish and this is one of the steps we can take that will give us new ambassadors for this country across the world.

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