Results 581-600 of 1,154,486 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:John Carty OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Réada Cronin OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:Niall Collins) in 'Committee meetings'

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

Mairead Farrell: It would be fantastic if that could be brought to the committee. I am talking about three structures and obviously I am not aware of what three they were or anything like that, so I am not speaking about them. I am sure they are doing fabulous work. When the regulator is looking at those I assume it looks into the background of them, such as the way they are constituted and if there is a...

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

Mairead Farrell: That is good. I asked about that because over the last two and a half years there has been significant interest in the IFSC and IFSC-based shell companies that often use charitable trust ownership structures. Some of these firms have billions in assets. We know about some examples from research carried out by academics in Trinity College showing that Russian-connected funds funnelled...

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

Mairead Farrell: Okay, but from the regulator's press statement there was the suggestion there were three that were using section 110. Ms. Delaney may wish to come back on that. I am just asking these questions because it is something I have a long interest in and it has been in the public eye. The Department of Finance did a review of section 110 in its entirety in the last year. Did it at any point ask...

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

Mairead Farrell: 2023.

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

Mairead Farrell: The regulator.

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

Mairead Farrell: It is €79,000. I had just assumed. At least the regulator has moved from having a deficit to a surplus. I raise the issue of Stewarts Care, which was investigated by the HSE. I am just wondering what role the Charities Regulator had and why there was no charity regulator involved in any investigation.

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

Mairead Farrell: At any point does Ms Delaney feel that she would like to have greater powers in that respect? Does Ms Delaney think it would be of benefit if the Charities Regulator had the funding and the resources put into it?

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

Mairead Farrell: I thank Ms Delaney. Just-----

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: 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: 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: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2024)

Mairead Farrell: No, I was just agreeing to that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2024)

Mairead Farrell: One of them relates to bogus self-employment.