Results 561-580 of 1,137,750 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Martin Kenny OR speaker:Michael McNamara OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív5 OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Pippa Hackett OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Patricia Ryan OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:John McGuinness OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív61 OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív58 OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív46) in 'Committee meetings'

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: That is a huge sum of money. Where was that spent? What was the need? Can Ms Delaney outline some of the skill shortfalls within the organisation that requires that level of money to be spent on outside consultants?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: There are 13 board members. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: What remuneration do they get for being board members?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: How many of those board members would be members of other boards?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: Okay, so some would be members of multiple boards.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: That is information the Charities Regulator would hold or have a database on.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: Okay. On the rent for the premises, €343,424 per year is a huge amount of money. It is a high rent. Does Ms Delaney agree?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: We only have to look across the State to see the number of OPW buildings that are vacant and derelict. Has any communication taken place with the OPW in terms of utilising some of its vacant buildings?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: It seems like an extraordinary amount of rent when there are so many State owned buildings. In terms of the charities themselves and the pay for CEOs, it has to be said an awful lot of charities operate on a voluntary basis and there is no remuneration whatsoever. For CEOs who are paid, the average is approximately €70,000. There were some reports in the media that said CEOs were...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: Are there any charities where that remuneration package is deemed excessive or which Ms Delaney has concerns about?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: We absolutely see the need for the regulator and the work it does in ensuring there is regulation and all the standards are adhered to, but in some cases it is construed that there is heavy-handedness in the approach taken. I do a lot of work with organisations that help the homeless, and I am sure others do as well. There was a brilliant organisation in my constituency that was set up by a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: I do not want to get into specific cases or anything like that, but they were certainly not masquerading as some charity. They received small donations, similar to many little groups like that. It was a coming together of community activists and people who wanted to do good. I gave the wrong figure. She was threatened with a fine of €300,000 and-or a prison sentence of up to ten...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: She was told this is the process you need to go through. It is a cumbersome and lengthy process that would frighten the life out of anyone trying to register as a charity. The approach was very heavy-handed and wrong and there needs to be a lot more-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

John Brady: -----working with small groups like that which see a need to address a serious crisis, which is homelessness. Unfortunately, it was forced to cease operating like many other similar small groups.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I thank the witnesses for being here this morning and the Comptroller and Auditor General for putting in the work on the report. I agree with Deputy Cannon that it is a very complex landscape and that we are dealing with charities of different capacities and sizes. I think roughly 11,000 charities are registered. Has their turnover been categorised in any way? How many fall into the very...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Does Ms Delaney have a breakdown for the number of charities that have incomes of less than €10,000 or €5,000 per year?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: If a charity has less than €10,000, it is an incredibly small operation. It more than likely does not have any paid staff and is mostly volunteer run. Equally, the auditing requirements are very onerous. Regarding audit fees in some cases, I know of one group with a total income of €2,500 and the cost of auditing is just north of €1,000. Has any consideration been...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I find it very frustrating, as does the group itself, which I will not name, that to carry out charitable work, and it inherited a legacy structure, 50% of its fundraising is to satisfy the Charities Regulator. While that is necessary, and I cannot see any other way around it, there is scope to have a more agile approach for smaller charities, as Ms Delaney mentioned. I will leave that with...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: They are identified as chief executive No. 2 in the report.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: That is the first concern. Had the cash flow or the financial operational management not become an issue, it is likely that we might not have discovered the many other areas such as the co-mingling of donations, restricted and unrestricted funds, and issues of poor governance decisions by the board and so on. For the Charities Regulator, that must be a lesson in the sense that had the...