David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister back to the House and I support the thrust of the legislation, albeit with a few caveats. The Government essentially intends to save costs and deal with administration issues. This is being seen as a quango in some respects, but I support the need to deal with those issues. Increased transparency is required in disbursing any dormant account funds. Many community projects benefit from dormant accounts funding. I have worked in the community development sector as a volunteer. I was a member of a management committee of a community development project in Waterford. I am aware of many of the sacrifices made over many years by volunteers throughout the country in the community development sector and agencies. The Minister will be aware that many community development projects have been placed under the control of Partnership. The boards of management are now gone and this is perceived by many as a hollowing out of genuine community development. There is very genuine concern about funding for community development. Most of the projects concerned operate on a shoestring budget. All those I know in Waterford operate on a shoestring budget in very difficult circumstances. They are trying to do work for the most disadvantaged communities.

I lived in three local authority housing estates, of which I am very proud. All had community development projects. The reason they had them was the need for projects to help the communities concerned to deal with many of the social and economic issues at the heart of many of their problems. The projects benefit from funding from the dormant accounts fund. While the Minister seeks to save money and cut costs, of which we are all in favour, it is important that he does not cut funding for community development projects. Doing so does not make sense and complicates matters for all those people trying to provide community development services.

Will money disbursed through the dormant accounts fund be ring-fenced? If the board is to be subsumed into the Minister's Department, will the funding become part of his budget? What accountability and transparency mechanisms will be in place? Will the Minister publish details annually on what money is being spent on and where it is being spent?

There is a need for value-for-money-based administration of the fund so we will spend less on consultancy and other services. We see this right across the public sector. This is an area on which I commend the Minister for at least trying to achieve savings but it should be noted there are many areas right across the public service where, as we know, austerity measures are being implemented and where there have been cutbacks. I mentioned cuts affecting the community and voluntary sector but there are also cuts affecting health and education, yet there is a great deal of waste in the system.

The Minister is saving a very small amount of money. Will he use the money saved to reinvest in communities? Will the money just be part of general departmental savings? This is a reasonable question for people to ask. If we are to save money, we need to know what will become of the savings.

A number of Senators referred to cuts of £4 billion in the North by the Tory Government. Senator Harte referred this morning to these cuts. The Assembly in the North does not have fiscal powers, nor does it have the opportunity to set or raise taxes, as the Minister knows. I hope the Minister's party and the Labour Party will work with those of us in Sinn Féin who are trying to obtain fiscal powers to allow Assembly Members in the North to make the kinds of decisions we would like Fine Gael and the Labour Party to make. In the North, there was an allocation of £80 million for community development purposes, despite the fact that there have been cuts in the order of £4 billion. It was still possible to find the money to invest in community services.