Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The disbursements will continue until the new legislation is passed. We had originally indicated that the board could allocate about €30 million per year. It has about 300 applications and has allocated about €2 million to about 20 groups thus far. Despite the comments in the media and from the Opposition, I can absolutely confirm that no decisions on disbursement will be made under the proposed legislation before the elections next June. We will have to see what happens when the legislation is passed, but nothing will happen very quickly. To suggest that this is a fund for the local elections is just cheap electioneering.