Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I join with others in congratulating the Minister of State on his appointment and wishing him every success. If somebody has to be in government, I am delighted that he is one of those people because he has shown commitment as an ordinary backbencher and chairperson of an Oireachtas committee.

I welcome the purpose of this Bill, which is to enact a reform of the law relating to charities to ensure accountability and to protect against abuse of charitable status and fraud. Some of the key aspects of this Bill provide for a definition of charitable purpose for the first time in primary legislation. I welcome this development and I also welcome a register of charities, with which all charities operating in this State must register. I welcome updating the law relating to fundraising, particularly in respect of collections by way of direct debits and similar non-cash methods.

However, I do not welcome the creation of another quango, which was noted by my colleague, Deputy Deasy. I am appalled that we seem to have lost faith in the Civil Service. We have a very good Civil Service which, down through the years, accounted very well for every penny spent belonging to the public, which served successive Governments, irrespective of colour, and which answered questions in Parliament.

People tell me they are shocked when they switch on their televisions to see an empty Chamber with nobody able to answer questions on certain issues. Is it any wonder when every day of the week, we are handing away more and more power to unelected people? Since I returned to the Dáil, not a day has passed but some issue is raised about the HSE. It is stated that the HSE is doing this and that and when one asks a parliamentary question, one gets a nice letter back from the Minister telling one that she has no responsibility for it but will pass it on to the HSE. The people did not elect the HSE, they elected the Minister and me, and they want answers.

Every day we pass on responsibility to quangos, which is another nail in the coffin of democracy. These are people who have been appointed and have had strong powers vested in them but who never have to answer to anybody. I tabled a parliamentary question for written answer yesterday about how many civil servants were currently in the Department of Health and Children and I received a reply which stated that there are 592.92 whole-time staff employed in that Department. I have yet to find out who the poor unfortunate referred to as ".92" is but that is another day's work. What are 593 civil servants in the Department of Health and Children doing when everything has been handed over to the HSE? Yesterday, we were told that there is one manager for every six employees in the HSE.

This is about charities and volunteers who are mainly going out and collecting money but, most of all, it is about the public putting its hands in its pockets to support whatever cause it fancies or feels it should support. When the public gives its money, it wants to be guaranteed that this money goes to that particular cause. It does not want to be told that 25% of the money is going to this new regulatory authority to keep this new bureaucracy going. It wants to see the money going to the causes it supports. It does not want any more of this stuff.

I have every confidence in the ability of the Minister of State and the officials over there in the pen advising him to carry out the functions of this legislation, which I support. There is no need for this stuff. If we must transfer some officials or civil servants from the Department of Health and Children who are no longer required because of the HSE to the Minister of State's Department, that is fine.

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