Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's statement but I urge him to ask his Cabinet colleagues to examine their own Departments because I am certain this issue is not confined to the Department of Health and I do not believe he should be carrying the can for it on his own. I ask him to examine issues within these section 38 and 39 organisations such as cars, bonuses and the pension arrangements in place for these people. Some people leading these so-called organisations are earning multiples of the Minister's salary and the Taoiseach's salary. There is a morality issue here for the service users, the parents of these children in many cases and the people who go out collecting the money. Those people are annoyed and distraught by what has been unearthed in the past week and to restore confidence and ensure that the charitable donations are not affected, this issue must be addressed head-on. Steps must be taken either through legislation or regulations to ensure it does not happen again and that there is proper governance in these organisations.

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