Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank the Deputies on all sides of the House who have contributed to the debate. Several contributors focused on the nature of dormant accounts, apart from the provisions of the Bill which serves to tidy some administrative matters, as well as dissolving the Dormant Accounts Board which will give rise to modest annual savings. I realise Deputies White and Ross sought a more accurate figure of the savings to be made, but "modest" is the term I offer. We will probably have more accurate accounts at a later stage.

When dormant accounts legislation was first introduced, the priority was to ensure the large financial institutions would not benefit from the money, that it would either be returned to account holders or be used for the benefit of the community by people who were deprived or disadvantaged. The application of unclaimed funds lying in dormant accounts where the legal owners cannot be identified has proven very successful in making resources available to assist community projects and to tackle disadvantage. Since its establishment in April 2003 to the end of December 2011, the transfers of the dormant accounts fund have totalled €631 million, which includes interest earned of €35.5 million. Funds reclaimed in that period by account holders amounted to approximately €228.9 million, with almost €247.5 million disbursed from the fund.

These moneys have been applied to the public good rather than making a contribution to the bottom lines of financial institutions. That said, at a time of severe budgetary pressures resulting in reduced allocations across Departments, there is a need to prioritise and to try to main existing funding programmes in the first instance. Expenditure on new dormant accounts measures or programmes could potentially reduce spending on other existing programmes and would serve to increase Government debt levels as the money belongs to the account holder who can reclaim it at any time and not to the State. Consequently, every euro spent from the fund is regarded in accounting terms as a potential Government liability and, therefore, dormant accounts funding cannot be regarded as free money.

This Bill, which allows for the dissolution of the Dormant Accounts Board, will transfer the statutory functions of the board to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It will assist with the requirement to reduce the number of State bodies which, as the Minister, Deputy Hogan, indicated to the House previously, is part of this Government's strategy to streamline Government business.

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