Results 601-620 of 1,114,149 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Holly Cairns OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:Ruairi Ó Murchú OR speaker:Joan Collins OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Marc MacSharry OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:John Brady) in 'Committee meetings'
- 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?
- 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.