Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

The Minister has been rather passive in this matter. Given that the Department is providing almost €1 million to the Irish Red Cross Society, surely the Minister has some responsibility to ensure the society is run properly. If the Minister is in a position to introduce legislation, he must surely have an input in the organisation.

Does the Minister agree that it is extraordinary that both the chairman and chief executive of the Irish Red Cross Society have resigned? I understand this is not the first time a chief executive of the organisation has resigned. This indicates there must be something wrong in the governance of the organisation. The Minister stated that the report, about which he knows a great deal, was drafted in November but has not yet been published officially. Surely that smacks of irresponsibility in another way and a lack of accountability and transparency. There is a problem in the Red Cross in Ireland. Otherwise, a distinguished former Member of this House would not step down and a former executive of the Irish Government, who was highly respected and who we all know, would not have stepped down. The Minister says he can do nothing about this but I do not accept it when he provides almost €1 million of Government funding. At this stage, can the Minister authorise a senior ranking official in his Department to draw up a report for him? The proposed legislation will require some involvement by his Department. Can the Minister authorise that simple investigation into why this happened? Our reputation abroad has been somewhat tarnished by the debacle in the Red Cross. I know this from feedback I received.

Recently the Red Cross collected money for flood relief. It has not yet been distributed. Does the Minister have an indication of how much was collected or is that not his responsibility? When will it be disbursed?

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