Results 581-600 of 1,125,515 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) in 'Committee meetings'

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

Mairead Farrell: According to a press statement from 2017 that the regulator has on its website: The Charities Regulator has completed a review of registered charities holding shares in section 110 companies on trust. The purpose of the review was to establish the number of registered Irish charities holding shares in section 110 companies and to determine whether they fell within the remit of the...

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: Yes, in order to acquire status.

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: Okay. On the back of this, I ask the regulator to come back to the committee with detail. It could look back to 2017 and see what the story is with those three structures and whether there have been any others. An Teachta Verona Murphy outlined the concern about the amount of staff the regulator has to look through 11,060 charities and whether it has enough funding to be able to look at...

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: That is fair. Following up from my colleague Deputy Brady's query about gathering data on CEO remuneration, obviously we see so many fantastic charities across this State that put huge work in, and so many people are constantly supporting it, but there have been times when people have had concerns about the remuneration of CEOs. That is something that has had quite a focus placed on 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: 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?