Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I am compelled to challenge the validity of a number of statements made by the Minister of State and a number of his actions in the area of public expenditure. He stated he has generated resources to enable the Government to continue to target the needy. However, the Government has reduced the funding available to the Community Workers Co-operative, which has been dropped from the anti-poverty programme. This cutback most affects the needy. I do not know how the Minister of State can reconcile that reality with his earlier statement.

The CWC claims it is being punished for its role in providing a critical voice to the most disadvantaged in our society. By making this decision, the Government is saying to disadvantaged communities that it will support them as long as they do not question its policies, which reflects its arrogance over the past few years. The Minister of State should put that in the context of a situation where €500,000 was given to five community organisations last month by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, without going through the normal procedures laid down for the disbursement of grant aid. There was no public call for the proposal, no formal application process and no published selection criteria.

I do not know whether the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, was in the House previously when I said the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs would take the dormant accounts fund and use it as a slush fund. If proof was required that this is what is going on, this is it. I do not know how it can be allowed to continue. We have been told by a spokesperson for the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs that if at the end of the year moneys are lying around, the Minister has the discretion to use them and disburse them as he wishes, without reference to proper selection criteria with regard to need. If that is the response to the needy of the country, Lord deliver us from the continuation of such a policy.

If the Minister of State is satisfied with that form of transparency in terms of the spending policy of this Government, let him state again he agrees with it. I am sure there are other examples, but they have not been highlighted. This practice would continue if it had not been highlighted by the Community Workers Co-operative when it was cut off from funding simply because it expressed a view critical of certain actions taken by Ministers with regard to how grant aid was provided to certain groups in need.

Deputy Parlon was challenged recently with regard to funding made available to a south Galway drainage scheme some years ago. The Minister of State launched that initiative twice or more. He was like a serial launcher in south Galway when he returned time and again to launch it, most times in the heat of an election. He endorsed the initiative as a great idea in his previous incarnation and complained not enough was provided.