Brendan Ryan (Labour)

——but I have picked up a considerable level of support from my colleagues in Fine Gael in my pursuit.

The Bill further states that when preparing the proposal, the Minister shall have regard to the approved plan. He is not bound by it. Where will we know how he has regard to the approved plan? We will not know because he will not publish the objective criteria. The Government may approve the submission with or without amendment and so on.

The issue in this regard is not all the fine things the Minister is talking about. We all agree that there may well have been structural problems with the original board. This is a new territory for us. The Minister may well be right about the need to tighten up some of these things, but the officials who are doing the work for the board are the same officials who will be back in Departments doing the same work. The Minister of State said that the work is currently being done by people on secondment. Why will it be suddenly much more efficient when it is done in Departments?

The truth is that it will become a political slush fund. It will be dressed up in fancy language and become a political slush fund. That is what the Minister for Finance said he did not want to happen, which is the reason he set up an independent board. My party and, I believe, my colleagues in Opposition want to return to a position where the criteria for allocating the funding are transparent at every phase and not susceptible to political interference. I cited five stages in the process where the Minister has the right to amend the plan, only one of which he has to publicise.