Results 561-580 of 1,139,783 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:John McGuinness OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Fergus O'Dowd OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:David Stanton OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Neale Richmond OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh)
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: That is fine. Deputy Farrell is next.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: Thank you. Your time is up, Deputy. There will be time for a second round. I call Deputy Ó Cathasaigh.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: To pick up on Ms Delaney's final point, it highlights the importance of the Charities Regulator and its role. When people donate to a charity, they understand that there are administrative costs and staffing costs but they like to think that the money, or a large percentage of it, is doing what it says on the tin. The Charities Regulator is incredibly important in that. We have had a...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is the one thing that jumped out from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. I would like to be able to see that money a little more clearly. I am not making any suggestion that there is anything untoward there, but we have seen at this committee other funds that were maybe less than transparent being used for all sorts of interesting items like flip-flops and so on. I do not...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank Ms Drinan. I was involved in the Charities (Amendment) Act, which was passed by the select committee on rural and community development, of which I am a member. Ms Delaney said that some parts of this important Act are not commenced yet. I was going to say "Bill", but it was signed into law on, I think, 10 July. There were earlier questions about staffing and resourcing for the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Are the ICT system changes likely to be contracted out in the way Ms Delaney was describing earlier?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Very good. I suppose that is more a future-facing question so perhaps it is not really properly a question for this committee. The atomic bomb the regulator can deploy is to have somebody removed from the charities register. Is that a power that is often invoked?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Okay, and there are eight prosecutions initiated out of the 1,700 charities.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: What is the current status of those prosecutions?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Are many more charities being considered? Are there more prosecutions on the way?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: How much of the staffing resource of the Charities Regulator is dedicated towards these kinds of prosecutions or removal from the register?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: This is an unusual question for the committee but is the regulator under-resourced in that area? I am surprised the regulator has only one dedicated staff member working on this.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: That is very good. I will ask a very big question in two minutes and I do not suppose we will get to the bottom of it. Approved housing bodies are becoming a bigger part of housing provision and they are going to become difficult. There are encumbered assets with loans against them. There are unencumbered assets where some of these houses are being bought through fund-raising and have no...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Is it open to AHBs to change from charitable status? One of my concerns is that AHBs with charitable status may decide to change their status, which would lead to a complicated question about assets.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Has the regulator the power to retrospectively make sure the clauses are in place?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: I thank Ms Delaney for answering. It was a very big question that took up two minutes.I have no doubt we will come back to this matter, including for the benefit of myself. I suggest that Deputy O'Connor makes his contribution before we take a break.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: I hope the Deputy reported it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: Yes. We will take a ten-minute break. The meeting is suspended.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: I welcome the witnesses back. I want to go back to the issue Deputy Ó Cathasaigh raised regarding approved housing bodies. I appreciate that some predate by a considerable distance the existence of the Charities Regulator. I have serious concerns about the asset base of properties for which the mortgage is paid off and that are now unencumbered. A couple of years ago, the Department...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority (17 Oct 2024)
Catherine Murphy: The Charities Regulator is doing a piece of work with the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority. What is that work?