Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

If the Minister of State will give me a chance I will explain. The truth hurts. The document also states:

Applications are invited for funding in accordance with the criteria set out in the disbursement plan. Applications may be submitted at any time. Area Development Management Limited (ADM) [which is familiar to many of us] is administering the funding process.

It goes on to state "ADM assesses the applications and makes recommendations to the Board. The Board then makes the decisions on who gets funding." The Minister of State has tried to spin the impression in a long speech that the board could not do the job properly and that the amount of money was too great for it to cope with. At present there is €185 million in the fund, which will be dispensed. I am sure that shortly, when the insurance aspect arises in April 2004, this largesse will increase dramatically.

I agree with Senator O'Meara, although Senator Feeney disagrees about politicians being distrusted, since I saw her shaking her head. Such changes as these maintain the level of distrust. People are liable to talk about various polls asking whom one trusts most — journalists or politicians. We are far down the pecking order. When the Government makes changes such as this, it lends credence to that, since everyone knows that it wants to get its grubby hands on this money.

Senator Ross is correct. I can assure Senators that, if there was good news for any project in west Limerick I would be the last to know, even if I were making representations on its behalf. Other Oireachtas representatives in west Limerick will know long before me what will happen with the money when it is dispensed. When it came to lottery funds before the election, they could telephone the different project promoters and say that the money was there. In the case of one project it was €500,000, and in the others €100,000 or €50,000. It did not matter that I was making representations to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. One might say that is politics, and I accept that, but in this case we are talking about more funding again.

The Committee of Public Accounts is to be lauded for suggesting the establishment of this fund. At the time, the Minister for Finance said that he would establish a statutory board. Why can its members not be allowed to administer the money? Reading this document gave me a great appreciation of what the dormant accounts fund was about.