Results 1,261-1,280 of 1,177,780 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:George Lee OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Martin Kenny OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Paul Donnelly OR speaker:Patricia Ryan OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Colm Brophy OR speaker:Michael Creed OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Steven Matthews OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:John Lahart OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Thomas Pringle OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore OR speaker:Norma Foley OR speaker:John McGuinness OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Brian Leddin OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Gerald Nash)

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (17 Oct 2024)

Micheál Martin: The military authorities have advised me that as of 31 August 2024, the latest date for which such information is available, the strength of the Permanent Defence Force stood at 7,426. A table containing the requested induction and discharges figures for each year from 2020 to 2024 will be provided to the Deputy. I have acknowledged in the past the recruitment and retention challenges in...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (17 Oct 2024)

Matt Carthy: It is hard to ask a supplementary question when I do not have the substantive response to the question I asked. I take the Tánaiste's commitment to provide the precise figures. Here is what we do know from the Tánaiste's response. There are currently fewer than 7,500 members of our Defence Forces, 2,000 below the establishment figure and a whopping 4,000 below the two-figure...

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

Catherine Murphy: I welcome everybody here today. I remind those in attendance to ensure mobile phones are on silent mode or switched off. Before we start I wish to explain some limitations to parliamentary privilege and the practice of the Houses as regards references that may be made to other persons in evidence. The evidence of witnesses physically present or who give evidence within the parliamentary...

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

Catherine Murphy: I thank Ms Drinan for her statement. As set out in the letter of invitation, Ms Delaney has five minutes to make her opening statement.

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

Catherine Murphy: The Deputy's time is up.

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

Catherine Murphy: Your time is up, Deputy.

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

Catherine Murphy: Before we move to Deputy Murphy, could Ms Delaney clarify that the consultancy fees were nothing to do with the regulator's core work and it was for exceptional items like the IT project?

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

Catherine Murphy: It was not the only one.

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

Catherine Murphy: I thank Ms Delaney. We move to Deputy Verona Murphy, who has ten minutes.

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

Paul McAuliffe: I thank the witnesses for being here this morning and the Comptroller and Auditor General for putting in the work on the report. I agree with Deputy Cannon that it is a very complex landscape and that we are dealing with charities of different capacities and sizes. I think roughly 11,000 charities are registered. Has their turnover been categorised in any way? How many fall into the very...

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

Paul McAuliffe: Does Ms Delaney have a breakdown for the number of charities that have incomes of less than €10,000 or €5,000 per year?

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

Paul McAuliffe: If a charity has less than €10,000, it is an incredibly small operation. It more than likely does not have any paid staff and is mostly volunteer run. Equally, the auditing requirements are very onerous. Regarding audit fees in some cases, I know of one group with a total income of €2,500 and the cost of auditing is just north of €1,000. Has any consideration been...

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

Paul McAuliffe: I find it very frustrating, as does the group itself, which I will not name, that to carry out charitable work, and it inherited a legacy structure, 50% of its fundraising is to satisfy the Charities Regulator. While that is necessary, and I cannot see any other way around it, there is scope to have a more agile approach for smaller charities, as Ms Delaney mentioned. I will leave that with...

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

Paul McAuliffe: They are identified as chief executive No. 2 in the report.

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

Paul McAuliffe: That is the first concern. Had the cash flow or the financial operational management not become an issue, it is likely that we might not have discovered the many other areas such as the co-mingling of donations, restricted and unrestricted funds, and issues of poor governance decisions by the board and so on. For the Charities Regulator, that must be a lesson in the sense that had the...

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

Paul McAuliffe: Does Ms Delaney accept that the relationship between CEO and chair is key? The governance issues or the protection of the public interest really rely on the board. When there is an entirely voluntary board and chairperson, however, without the independent resources of the staffing of the organisation, the board can be in a very weak position to monitor what is happening in the organisation.