Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I accept the Senator's point in principle. However, in this case there is a good reason for the provision. As the Senator is probably aware, a call was issued under the current legislation for proposals, some €300 million worth of which have now been received by the dormant accounts board, and, at its request, we have advanced permission to spend €60 million. However, there has been a considerable time delay in processing these applications and, off the top of my head, it has not yet approved €10 million worth.

Therefore, I would like to ensure the board can complete the processing of the current round of applications before we activate the changes proposed in this Bill. It is only fair to those who made submissions. It would not be possible for ADM or the board to give me an indication of when the process will be completed. Therefore, it would be wrong for us to have an arbitrary date as ADM might not yet have finished its appraisal of the vast number of applications it has received, out of which the current disbursements of €60 million are being made.