Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A table would be useful as well, because it is quite elaborate, and I am not aware of any other organisation like this. I believe there are nine Government Departments that provide funding to An Taisce, for very specific and distinctive reasons, it has to be said.

I wrote to the Chair on this yesterday, so perhaps we can deal with this now. Just to get clarification, does the secretariat's briefing note cover the Government Departments and the non-departmental public agencies as well? I am aware, for example, that the National Transport Authority provides substantial funding to An Taisce as well. If it does not, could we incorporate that in terms of having an overall view, as we would with any organisation that is in receipt of substantial State funding? The word that is being used in terms of oversight is that it is "proportional". What we are dealing with is a large number of relatively small funding mechanisms. However, together, it is quite a substantial funding mechanism. If the funding was coming from one source, perhaps the oversight arrangements would need to be broader so it would keep that in.

It is all the context of public probity, that we ensure that any body receiving taxpayers' money is ensuring that it is going for its intended purpose and that everything is fully accountable. I am not aware, just be very clear on the record, of any suggestion that is not happening in this case. Within the remit of this committee, it is important that we can satisfy ourselves that is the case.