Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The Charities Regulatory Authority was formally established in 2014 under the Charities Act 2009. It is responsible for the regulation and protection of charitable trusts and organisations. It has been granted a wide range of powers and duties, including the power to conduct investigations into the affairs of charities. Under the provisions of the Act, the authority holds funds in trust on behalf of charities that wish to participate in a common investment fund controlled by the authority. Separately, it holds the funds of charities in a charity funds account. My audit of the authority covers two sets of financial statements: the financial statements for the normal operations of the authority and the financial statements for the charity funds account. The common investment fund is separately accounted for and is audited by a commercial firm of auditors. The financial statements of the common investment fund are not presented to the Oireachtas.

The 2018 financial statements of the authority recorded total income of €3.96 million, all of which is Oireachtas grant funding. Its expenditure in that year was €3.7 million, which included staff costs of €2.1 million and other administration costs of €1.5 million. The authority reported an operating surplus for the year of €47,000, after appropriation of €236,000 for capital purposes. A clear audit opinion was given on the 2018 financial statements. Certain charity funds have been lodged for safekeeping with the authority or its predecessor, the Commissioners for Charitable Donations and Bequests, and are being held pending clarification of their proper use. These funds are held by the authority in a separate charity funds account. The authority uses the same account, as required, to receive and transmit funds between charities and the common investment fund. The balance on the charity funds account at the close of 2018 was €1.38 million. Most of the balance related to funds of charities being held for safekeeping. Receipts into the fund account during 2018 amounted to just over €2 million, mainly comprising dividends from the investment fund and proceeds of investment units realised at the direction of participating charities. The charity funds account payments in 2018 mainly represented distribution of the receipts to the charities concerned. A clear audit opinion was given on the 2018 financial statements of this account.