Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, and support the Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004. It is appropriate legislation. In fact, I am surprised any Member of the House would criticise a Government for carrying out its functions in a responsible manner. The Bill regulates the disbursement of massive amounts of public money left in dormant accounts. The Government has made a good policy decision in terms of its use. It is right that we seek to put the current ad hoc arrangement on a statutory basis. Public representatives and Ministers would have little confidence in themselves if they could not be involved in the approval, following proper application and publication, of those who have been successful.

I have total confidence in the Minister and Minister of State at the Department of Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs and in all other Ministers who will have responsibility under this legislation to ensure the money is appropriated in a proper fashion. They will be ultimately responsible to the Oireachtas while those holding temporary positions on the board will have no such responsibility. Under the Bill, the chairman of the present organisation would have to appear before the Committee of Public Accounts. It is unfair to expect a non-executive chairman to take responsibility for that type of funding.

The proposal to ensure that current structures are utilised is also worthwhile. There have been far too many situations where substantial amounts of the money provided for the establishment of new organisations and jobs has been spent on administration. The Bill will ensure the costs of distribution will be kept to a minimum with the maximum amount being given to those in need of funds. I am delighted to note the proposal to make available €222 million, almost a quarter of a billion euro, in that regard. That is a sizeable amount of money, more than the amount available to many Departments.

The areas of priority will be RAPID, CLÁR and the drugs task force, which are very worthwhile organisations. I fail to understand why Opposition Senators are in such a lather about this legislation. One would think the Government was proposing to disburse money without any public accountability. There is total public accountability under the Bill. It would be remiss of Government not to introduce this legislation.