Results 601-620 of 1,131,568 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Paul Gavan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Kieran O'Donnell OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Seán Fleming OR speaker:Seán Sherlock OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Richard Bruton OR speaker:Richard Bruton6 OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Violet-Anne Wynne OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Verona Murphy OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Christopher O'Sullivan) in 'Committee meetings'

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)

James O'Connor: I welcome all the witnesses. The Peter McVerry Trust is in the headlines for the wrong reasons, which has prompted a lot of questions that need to be answered around what merits the Charities Regulator getting involved to undertake investigative work. Under Part IV of the Charities Act 2009, the Charities Regulator has the power to appoint investigators to investigate the affairs of any...

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

James O'Connor: In how many instances has that happened? As the Peter McVerry Trust grew between 2011 and 2022, I understand that it took over nine separate charities. The trust’s remit is supposed to be housing and homelessness, but the purpose of one of those charities was the advancement of religion, which is not one of the trust’s charitable purposes. The trust is in receipt of...

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

James O'Connor: An approximate figure is okay.

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

James O'Connor: The reason I ask is there is a lot of grime on the window of the immigrant investor programme, IIP, which I am concerned about. Nobody is quite sure why it was shut down. A number of charities were involved in the process of obtaining it. There are multiple reasons - "issues occurred" and pressure from the European Commission and other aspects at an international level but looking at the...

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

James O'Connor: Will Ms Delaney elaborate on that? She said it was not something the Charities Regulator was specifically looking at.

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

James O'Connor: I want to be careful; I am not from a legal profession but I want to ask the question because it is relevant. Is Ms Delaney aware of many charitable bodies accountable to the Charities Regulator from an inspection point of view that left that structure and went into a company limited by guarantee structure or out of the charity structure to obtain funds from the IIP?

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

James O'Connor: Ms Delaney is not aware of that.

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

James O'Connor: I encourage Ms Delaney to do some digging. It has been brought to my attention as a Member of the Oireachtas. I will not bring it up but it has crossed my desk.