Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I know everyone in the House welcomes the use of unclaimed moneys for the betterment of the less well off in our society. Such good work for the public good must continue, which is exactly the intention of the Bill. There is, of course, always more that could be done. In this context, the increase of €30 million in the amount the current board may spend on programmes and projects, as announced last week, is timely and significant. The Government's decision on the issue is in response to a request from the board for increased funding and informed by the fact that there were no approvals for funding made by the board last year. It was around Christmas time that it got up and running and made its first allocations.