Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill. If I interpret correctly the general thrust of this legislation, it is a mechanism to reduce the general level of bureaucracy and administration required by anyone operating a large scheme of this type. I recall the discussion that took place about minimising bureaucracy when the national lottery was being established. It was necessary to keep administration to a minimum so the funds that accrued from the lottery could go directly to the various projects. The matter was dealt with capably by the various Departments that were involved. The then Departments of Health and Social Welfare and the bodies dealing with sport, leisure and recreation — the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism was not in place at the time — administered the various schemes efficiently and carefully. To my knowledge, Members on the Opposition benches have never criticised the way the schemes were handled.

I wish to ask the Minister of State about his comment that an additional €30 million has been allocated to projects this year. I understand that the closing date for applications for the original €30 million was 5 March last. Now that the fund has been doubled and an additional €30 million has been allocated, I am concerned that fresh applications cannot be made at this stage. Will the consideration of applications be confined to applications that were made by 5 March? I would consider such an arrangement to be somewhat unsatisfactory. I would like some latitude to be given, now that an additional €30 million has been provided. Those who missed out on 5 March and were waiting for the chance to apply for the next allocation should be given a few weeks to get in their applications.

This matter involves a substantial amount of money. Applications were made earlier this year on the basis that €30 million was available. If it is the case that a further €30 million is available, a mechanism should be put in place to enable additional applications to be sought. I do not mean that the timeframe for applications should be extended for the entire year, but it might be a good idea to accept additional applications until the middle of July. Applications were not made by a number people representing good projects because they did not think sufficient funding would be made available. They anticipate that their applications would be successful on this occasion if they were to be allowed to make them.

The thrust of the legislation is to reduce bureaucracy. It is adequate and satisfactory to deal with the fund by means of existing administrative arrangements in Departments. In my view, such a system has worked well with national lottery allocations.