Results 621-640 of 1,127,165 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Áine Brady OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh22 OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Chris Andrews OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn OR speaker:Alan Kelly OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh29 OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh30 OR speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Áine Brady06 OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh28 OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh09 OR speaker:Mark Ward OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh16 OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh27 OR speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh20 OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh12 OR speaker:Áine Brady4 OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh3 OR speaker:Aengus Ó Snodaigh31)

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

Verona Murphy: I will finish with this but, leaving it at €15 million, it is counterproductive not to resource the regulator when we are providing money and where we can see it is not being spent accordingly. I take it the regulator's investigation into the Peter McVerry Trust is not yet complete.

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

Verona Murphy: We look forward to having the regulator back on that basis. I thank Ms Delaney.

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: Business of Committee (17 Oct 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General's office for the report. I wish to ask about An Bord Pleanála because we have engaged with it before. The work programme may be a moot point at this stage, but it is incumbent on us as a committee to ensure that because of the reports that have been compiled on the issues relating to 2022, we have it in our sights for an engagement in the...

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

Cormac Devlin: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. The Comptroller and Auditor General's office refers to reports that have been compiled on issues in 2022 and onwards. Are those reports now complete and in the Comptroller and Auditor General's possession or what stage are they at? If the reports are published and completed, that has a bearing on how this committee proceeds.

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

Cormac Devlin: I thank Ms Drinan for that. We have spoken to An Bord Pleanála before about the internal control report - the second report to which Ms Drinan referred. Allowing for the chairman to have sufficient time and also to ensure this committee is diligent in its work, I suggest that in within the first month or two of 2025 this committee would seek to engage with An Bord Pleanála on the...

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

Cormac Devlin: I will come in on that particular piece of correspondence. As the Leas-Chathaoirleach rightly pointed out, the committee worked exceptionally hard on that report following on from the large engagement not only with RTÉ, but also with the other ancillary individuals and agencies. This is another item that needs to reoccur on our agenda as a committee. The committee was very firm about...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Funding (17 Oct 2024)

Micheál Martin: The Defence Vote group comprises of two Votes: Vote 35 - Army pensions and Vote 36 - defence. The 2023 Vote 36 – defence net surplus surrendered to the Exchequer was €18.1 million. This figure includes surplus appropriations-in-aid of €9.1 million, which, as the Deputy will be aware, cannot be used to fund additional expenditure and must be surrendered to the...