Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I welcome the Minister and the sincere tone of his remarks, but the content of his speech was an exercise in pretence, masking the reality of doing very little. The following line in the Minister's speech sums up best the attempted spin to convince Members that something is being done. It is a reminder more of 1984 rather than 2004.

We are not opposed in principle to the establishment of an agency and do not rule this out. However, we consider that, in the context of the present level of funding, it would be inappropriate to devote a large proportion of this amount to the establishment of an agency.

The establishment of an agency might happen sometime, but there is insufficient funding for it. Who determined the current level of funding? The Government determines the level of funding which is inadequate to set up an agency. Therefore, the agency will not be established because the Government has not allocated funding to it. Let us be straight about it. There is no political will on the part of the Government to do anything substantial or real for Irish emigrants abroad, who are in need of assistance. Lip service has been paid to a fine report and to the needs of Irish people living abroad, which have been set out so starkly and clearly in the "Prime Time" documentary of last December. It is an exercise in hypocrisy by the Government for the Minister to come before the House with a long spiel on what has been done and to talk about an increase in funding. There has been an increase in very little except hypocrisy.