Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Members’ Bill. The Minister for Justice and Equality pointed out there is much more work to be done in the charities regulatory area. While some Members attended the justice committee to describe their shock at the Minister’s decision to wind down a particular aspect of lottery funding, some of the figures revealed here this evening on the low net profit margins of some of these schemes pose questions of which the Oireachtas has a duty to get to the bottom. I agree with the calls for an examination of the use of these schemes since 1997, since that in itself leaves many unanswered questions.

Charities across the country will be distressed by what has happened in their sector over the past several days. When one sees individuals before an Oireachtas inquiry giving evidence that falls between the-dog-ate-my-homework excuse and that which was given by a certain individual in Dublin Castle once upon a time when he tried to convince the country he found money in a suitcase which he then carted around O’Connell Street, is it any wonder people thought they would get away with it? The damage will have to be repaired and confidence in the sector restored. I have raised the issue of governance in this sector on a Topical Issue Matters before. How do people become board members of these charities? Who elects the boards? Who appoints their chief executive officers? Where are the public interest directors and ministerial nominees to these boards? These will all have to be fleshed out. When it comes to annual reports, Deputy Colreavy earlier asked where are the auditors in all of this. There are so many intricacies in this unseemly mess, which I hope will be shortlived, that the big losers in all of this will be the charities and their service-users. Ultimately, the big losers in this should really be those being paid multiples of the Taoiseach’s salary.

The days of a person sending someone out with a bucket to collect a bonus to top up a salary of €368,000 or €370,000 must stop. While the Bill has some good aspects, the earlier comments made by the Minister for Justice and Equality certainly must be fleshed out to a greater extent. I urge him and his Government colleagues to empower the relevant Oireachtas committee to consider this issue in greater detail.

See this speech in context