Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No.1:

In page 4, line 35, before ", relating" to insert "in consultation with the Board".

I am very happy with how the Minister of State is proposing to deal with this Bill. The amendments we have tabled are based on our core opposition to the dissolution of the Dormant Accounts Board. We see it as an attempt by the Government potentially to attack the independence of the community sector. The board was non-governmental in structure and it gave a fair hearing to all applicants. As envisaged in this Bill, the board will be abolished and the money will be administered by Ministers. This is unacceptable to us. There is a possibility of this becoming a slush fund for pet projects, and Sinn Féin strongly believes an independent board is essential to ensure transparency and fairness when allocating moneys from the dormant accounts. The board was never a huge financial burden on the structures that predate this Bill. The majority of the costs were not incurred by the board. The total cost for the services was €1.7 million, but our information is that the board cost €200,000 over a ten year period, or €20,000 per annum.

All our amendments flow from this basic position and so they are organically linked. The first amendment proposes that any scheme for the disbursement of the funds be done in consultation with the retained board, rather than simply leaving it to the Minister, as outlined in the Bill. We believe the independent board should be one of the stakeholders to be consulted. The Bill simply reduces the consultation process to a group of Ministers, so our second amendment tries to change that. The third amendment calls for the Minister to have regard to the views of the board when drawing up the scheme of disbursement. The fourth amendment states that the Minister must consult the board while preparing an action plan. If the Bill remains unamended, it will simply be left to Ministers to draw up an action plan for the purposes of the distribution of funds in the dormant accounts without any transparency or without any of the expertise that has been built up by the independent board. The fifth amendment ensures the Minister consults the board at each stage of awarding the funds from the dormant accounts, even at the early stage of drafting the criteria to be applied and seeking the application of interest in the funds. The sixth amendment ensures the board is fully consulted when the Minister or an appointee of the Minister is preparing a report on the applications for funding. This amendment will ensure the experience and expertise of the independent board is brought to bear on this important part of the process when many applications will be new and many more may well have received funds in the past. The board will be aware of the challenges that lie ahead in funding many of the applications.

The remaining group of amendments are all linked as they deal with the dissolution of the board. Each amendment opposes a specific part of the Bill that will lead to the collapse of the independent board, which we feel has done a good job in providing independent advice and acting as a critical appraiser on the Government's decision on the dormant accounts funds. The Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Act 2005 provided for a chairperson and ten ordinary members, all of whom were appointed by the then Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. All those appointed had, in the Minister's opinion, a knowledge and expertise relating to the matters that appear to the Minister to be relevant to the board's functions. This will be lost if that last group of amendments is not accepted. As the amendments are linked, I propose to put forward the argument that all the amendments should be accepted to preserve the independence, experience and expertise of the board, which its members have gathered over the years both as board members and in their own fields of work. We believe they have done a good job and that they should be retained. I ask the House to support all of those remaining amendments.

Each of the remaining sections of the Bill deals with the logistical dismantling of the board. This includes the transfer of property rights and liabilities of the board, pending legal proceedings, the preservation of certain contracts and the production of the final accounts and a final report. While we do not want object in any way to the board producing accounts or reports, we hope this would be done on an ongoing basis rather than in one final set of accounts or in one final report.

The money in the dormant accounts fund is in excess of €100 million. It has come from private dormant accounts in building societies and banks. We support how it is being used, as it has been used very well in the past. However, it is going into the system and it will be allocated to projects. There could be a gang of four Ministers having total power and that could be abused by this Government or by future Governments. There is a potential that it could be allocated to favoured projects and we believe that is not a very good way to do our business.

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