Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ensure the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is briefed on the points raised. As was acknowledged, he cannot be here to reply to this issue. The decisions on proposals for funding under the scheme take into account considerations such as the social and economic benefits, consistency with current policies and long-term vision. As I said earlier, the decision-making process in this case took into account the outcome of a process under which all applications were assessed by Pobal. For those applicants which were unsuccessful in the decisions made, there is a process through which those applicants can get direct feedback from Pobal. There is an appeals process, to which I already referred, of which applicants can avail should they wish to do so. I urge the Irish Deaf Society to make contact with Pobal in regard to its application and to get total clarity on all of these issues involved. That is the most important thing, given what the Deputies said.

I will not respond to the political points made because it is more important that everybody knows the facts and that whatever needs to be done to get all of those facts is done to see what can happen.

See this speech in context