Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

That is good. The issue of the dormant accounts legislation was discussed during the debate. Disbursements of €267 million were made from dormant accounts to projects of community benefit between the establishment of the fund in April 2003 and the end of August 2011. Money does not have to be ring-fenced in order for something to happen. It has happened in this case. The net value of uncommitted moneys in the fund is €82 million. Those moneys will be transferred to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which will be responsible for disbursing them at the end of the day. I expect that unclaimed funds will continue to be used to help disadvantaged communities and increase educational opportunity. It will be done along the lines of how these programmes were assisted in the past. The Senator made an interesting point about criminal assets that are ultimately procured by the State. I will bring it to the attention of the Minister for Justice and Equality. We are examining the VAT refund scheme in the context of our forum on philanthropy. The charities legislation that is vested in the Department of Justice and Equality used to be vested in the former Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. We will make some recommendations on VAT to the Minister for Finance in the next couple of weeks.