Results 581-600 of 1,108,788 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Michael Moynihan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Eamon Ryan OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Brendan Griffin) in 'Committee meetings'

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?

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

Catherine Murphy: My attention was drawn to it when someone who was on the board of a small approved housing body was talking about their portfolio of properties. I was absolutely shocked by that. That is what prompted me to start asking questions about this. In theory, an organisation could change its constitution, but there are protections.

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

Catherine Murphy: That goes to the governance and whoever is on the board of directors.

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

Catherine Murphy: I am trying to envisage a situation. In the way AHBs are set up, there is often co-operation with the local authority. There would be a piece of land and housing would be developed, and that would be important because it brings some affordable housing supply. Some of this goes back decades. The bigger ones are of less concern because they were set up in a modern context and they are...

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

Catherine Murphy: Who would bring that to the attention of the Charities Regulator? Is there something that can be identified in the accounts? Is it a question of a complaint coming to the regulator? Where are the routes from which it would get that information?

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

Catherine Murphy: Some of the 11,000-odd charities are schools and sporting clubs and some charities are public services that, in other jurisdictions, would be public services rather than charities providing services to the public. One of the biggest responsibilities of the Charities Regulator is to make sure the public has trust in the other cohort of more recognised charities, if you like. There have been...

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

Catherine Murphy: Okay. The Department would have had to have provided funding. Homelessness is an escalating problem. I remember the first time I raised the issue of a family sleeping in a car. It was ten years ago. It was 2014 and that kind of thing was unheard of before that. There would have been a cohort of people who would have been rough sleeping who would have had complex issues. It now...

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

Catherine Murphy: On the Department and the Peter McVerry Trust, the Department would have had to provide it with funding or it would have got funding through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. It possibly got funding from other local authorities as well. As the local authority in Kildare partners with the Peter McVerry Trust with regard to one of the homeless facilities, there is a direct relationship...

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

Catherine Murphy: I will turn to 11.15 of the C and AG's report on page 181, which states: The checking included one spot check of the Peter McVerry Trust's expenditure, seeking invoices to substantiate expenditure in quarter 1 of €94,206. The [Dublin Region Homeless Executive] explained to the Department that quarter one funding is not invoice based and therefore the Department could [not] exercise...

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

Catherine Murphy: Okay. The organisation has 13 members on the board. Do they rotate and how often? Obviously there is a governance issue here.

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

Catherine Murphy: Nonetheless, in theory they could all be there for five years and they could be renewed for another five years.

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

Catherine Murphy: That would not be good governance practice but that is not down to Ms Delaney, it is down to the Minister. Ms Delaney has identified the number of complaints or concerns of which she was notified and specifically identified 15 on which she is taking further action. What are they?

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

Catherine Murphy: Is there anything more than that with any of them, that is, other than regarding compliance?

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

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Ms Delaney talked about using intelligence and information, including data. I am curious whether the organisation ever used Benefacts for the information it used to provide?

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

Catherine Murphy: It was very useful to have the information in one location. I might ask the departmental official about a replacement for Benefacts. That was talked about at the time. I could not for the life of me understand why it would not have that in place before it closed down a valuable source of information. Where is that at the moment?

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

Catherine Murphy: Is it not Mr. Ryan's Department that will be dealing with a replacement for that platform?

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

Catherine Murphy: It was my understanding that was the case. I can check that out with the Department of the Taoiseach. I am trying to figure out the information but our witnesses really are scratching around in the dark. Looking at other similar institutions in other jurisdictions, have they a stronger function? Have they more powers or information that is more readily available to them? What are we...

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

Catherine Murphy: To return to Ms Delaney's own organisation, what benefits are staff receiving in terms of health insurance, car allowance or anything like that?

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

Catherine Murphy: None. Okay, that is fine. Regarding the positions, Ms Delaney talked about a very small number of vacancies. What kind of expertise does the regulator have and is there anything it has applied for in terms of additional resources for expertise? I presume she looks for resources all of the time. She might give us an idea of what she thinks is needed.