Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

The Minister wants to have his usual loaf and eat it. I am aware of his speech in the Seanad on 25 March. We heard it all in the other document today. I am also shocked at the very serious allegations that the Minister made against me in the Seanad regarding the allocation of funding. Senator Ó Murchú is deadly accurate when he states that the Minister's sentiments are focused on looking after the community. Whether there is privilege or otherwise — people can decide for themselves — it is not appropriate for a Minister to whose constituency the greatest funding allocation goes, whether for roads, sewerage or any other social improvement for the community, to disburse finances in the way that he did, since they are public resources.

I brought into the House the allocations for 2003 and 2004 for roads in County Galway. I will not go through them in detail as the Minister has refused to give the details of his own CLÁR programme, for which he refused to provide a script. However, in the allocations, one after another is in his own constituency. We see the west Galway version of Punchestown in that allocation of funding.

To put the record straight, very soon I will be asking the Committee of Public Accounts to adjudicate on the allocation of funding under the various headings and schemes throughout the CLÁR areas. It will be quite clearly seen that what I have said on the record of this House is true, accurate and verifiable, and I will stand by it. Regarding the dormant accounts——