Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take amendments Nos. 1 and 8 together. These amendments relate to the expenses involved in administering the scheme. The effect of amendment No. 1 is to provide that expenses incurred by relevant administrators will be met out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. Section 5 of the Dormant Accounts Act 2002 provides that the expenses incurred by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in the administration of the Act are met out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. The enactment of this Bill will create responsibility for several other Ministers and this amendment provides that expenses incurred by such Ministers will also be met out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. This was a technical amendment which I introduced on Committee Stage in the Dáil following advice from the Attorney General.

The effect of amendment No. 8 is to provide that expenses incurred by public bodies through the engagement of service providers to process and assess applications will be met out of the dormant accounts disbursement fund. Decisions about applications will be made following the assessment of applications received and my subsequent submission to the Government of a list of recommendations for disbursement from the fund. Given the wide remit of the scheme, it is likely that funding programmes will be administered by several Departments. Such Departments may engage service providers to assist in the process of receiving and assessing applications for funding. The purpose of this amendment, which I introduced on Committee Stage in the Dáil, was to provide that the cost of engaging service providers to carry out such processing work would be recoverable from the fund.

Senators will be aware that the existing board engaged Area Development Management Limited, ADM, as a service provider to administer the initial round of funding on its behalf. The board reimburses ADM all relevant costs incurred in carrying out this work. Under the new arrangements, similar provisions may apply to Departments which engage service providers to assist in the process of receiving and assessing applications for funding. It was for this reason I introduced the amendment. We are maintaining the status quo but previously this merely related to the board engaging outside assessors and paying them out of the fund, while the Department paid for its own expenses out of funding provided by the Oireachtas. This set-up might now apply to several Departments so the same approach adopted in the principal Act is being maintained.