Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish Mr. Farrelly every success in his new role. He was appointed on 16 May so he is only a short time in office.

As he stated, there is a very significant number of charities in the sector. I am interested in the number of registered charities that receive HSE funding. The HSE's annual report of 2015 states that 1,847 different groups receive €100,000 or less and when one adds up all of the groups, over 2,300 organisations get funding. As I read the details, I noticed that many of them appear to be charities. The list can be found in the schedule of the HSE's annual report.

Last year, the total funding provided by the HSE to the various organisations was €3.72 billion, which amounts to 25% of the health budget. In October 2013, I raised questions on this issue during a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children before the issue was taken over the Committee of Public Accounts. I got a breakdown from the Joint Committee on Health and Children on the various categories. The groups were as follows: in receipt of over €100 million; in receipt of between €50 million and €100 million; in receipt of between €10 million and €50 million; in receipt of between €1 million and €10 million; and in receipt of between €100,000 and €1 million. In 2013, some 442 groups received between €100,000 and €1 million and 131 groups received between €1 million and €10 million. Those statistics prove that a huge amount of money was paid out.

Mr. Farrelly has identified that there are over 700 registered charitable organisations. Does he feel that he has adequate resources and staff numbers to deal with the task? It will be a slow process to get everyone on the register. It would be unfair to expect the HSE to have the manpower to manage every aspect of 2,300 organisations. It would also be incorrect for us to expect the charities regulator to inspect 2,300 organisations. He has been in office for a few months. Does he feel that he can deal with the matter and all of the issues that are arising? Does he feel the Government should provide much more assistance to the authority?