Ms Caoimhe de Barra:

Maybe I will start with the second question and then Mr. Casey and I can speak about the governance and accountability. As the Senator says, the public is incredibly generous. In recent years we have seen successive disasters and emergencies, including the Ukraine crisis, but also the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. These successive crises have shown the public care and want to support. The research we have access to from the UK, but also research from here, shows that when people are given an opportunity to support and donate, especially if it is through a single appeals mechanism, they find it very easy to do that. The more the appeal mechanism is known, the more people are aware of it and trust it - the link to the Government is a key component of trust - and the more people will donate. We have observed over time, both as individual agencies and as members of the IEA, that the public are very willing to donate at times of crisis. We have that empathy and value base still. People need a mechanism that is easy for them to follow through on, which is a single-click mechanism where they do not have to think about which agency to support because they are hearing ads from multiple agencies. When they know this is the agency and this is the route they know they can trust it and support it.

On the accountability side, we are governed under charity legislation. The organisation is registered with the charities regulatory authority. As executive director, Mr. Casey might comment further.