Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The advantage of using the existing infrastructure of State to carry out the above work is that it means that much less of the money than otherwise would be the case will be spent on overheads and administration and that the benefit or the expertise of the whole State system will be available for the evaluation of projects. This would mean legal responsibility for decisions would ultimately lie with the relevant Minister and accounting responsibility with the relevant Accounting Officers. This is a much better arrangement from a governance, financial and accounting point of view.

As originally enacted, the whole structure represented a time bomb waiting to explode. Within three or four years we would have been faced with a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General wondering how on earth we had set up a structure like this without proper financial control and governance arrangements. We are taking action now to avoid having such a hullabaloo in a few years' time. It is not appropriate to spend that kind of money without having a proper system in place.

In considering the best arrangement and to ensure that the commitments given by the Government on the fund will be maintained, it is proposed that the dormant accounts board will be retained as part of the new Act. However, its role will be changed. Under the new Act, the dormant accounts board will draw up the dormant accounts plan. It is intended to retain the dormant accounts plan in its current format. The board has spent considerable time on that plan which was submitted to the Department some months ago. We made some small changes to copperfasten it and ensure the issues mentioned by Senator Brian Hayes were crystal clear so that the funds would not go to marginal constituencies, but to areas and constituencies with people living on the margins. This is what is being done and this is the reason the fund exists.

The underlying objectives of the current legislation, which are to target persons who are personally, educationally or socially disadvantaged or have a disability, will be retained. The dormant accounts board will, in its future role, prepare future plans and advise annually on priority areas for disbursement. Furthermore, it will critically assess the additionality and impact of spend on a regular basis. This is of critical importance and arrangements will be put in place to ensure that spending under the dormant accounts board will be kept separate from the normal Estimates process so that this additionality can be verified, as we want. The proposed improved arrangements will lead to much better governance and will secure and enhance the accountability to the Oireachtas and the Committee of Public Accounts. It is also the intention to publish the list of all beneficiaries from the fund.

I will now deal with comments made in recent days by politicians and the media. Last December, the Government announced that it intended to make——