Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are small charities in various areas, including mine, that are providing services for the elderly. Everybody knows the people in question and there is no question of having to identify them. They might need a small grant from the HSE, for example, and they are asked for a charity number. Then they are told to form a company and then they have accounts audited. The charity might be dealing with only €30,000 or €40,000 per year. The chance of a large sum of money going missing in that set of circumstances is nil because there is not a large sum. The chance of a small sum going missing is very small but it does not seem to be the case that there is proper proportionality. I do not know whether the Minister of State is receiving complaints about this. Proper proportionality would involve the taking into account of compliance costs. In some cases, because of the insistence on having to obtain a charity number, it is not worthwhile applying for small grants.