Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to know a whole lot of things. What will be the successor organisation or database? What is the timeline? What will this cost? The reply from the Department indicated it was a pathfinder project. I ask it to describe to us what a pathfinder project is. Where is the value for money in investing in the region of €6.5 million of public money in a database, which is heavily used, before essentially dispensing with it? On the procurement risk, there are organisations like the ESRI that would have an exemption in terms of their output. There was a way of dealing with the procurement risk. Did the Department consider that? Maybe that is the question to ask. What dialogue was or was not had with Benefacts? What dialogue is taking place with the Department that is to sponsor a new database? What can be retrieved from this database? There are many questions on this. Can the database be retrieved, even on a temporary basis until there is a replacement? A valuable resource has been lost. This database was used by many people and benefited not-for-profits in particular. If the Charities Regulator is going to deal with it, the regulator will not be dealing with entities that are not charities but are at the same time not-for-profits.