Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. The key issue is the lack of accountability and transparency and the inevitable consequence for public trust and confidence in charities. It is inevitable that donations will fall off. The people who will suffer and bear the brunt will be those who rely on the services. That is the sad part about what is going to unfold at the CRC. I hope other issues of a comparable nature will not emerge in other organisations, but that may well be the case. We know the HSE identified these issues in its internal audit report dating back to March of this year. It is scandalous that 24 of the 44 section 38 organisations have openly admitted to the HSE that they are not in compliance with public sector pay policy. That position is untenable. I want to know specifically what the HSE is going to do about that in terms of signing up to new service level agreements with those organisations. What is the ultimate power the HSE has at its disposal and is prepared to use to ensure all those organisations fully comply with public pay policy?

I welcome the Tánaiste's commitment on the Charities Act. In November 2011 the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, said the Government was postponing the establishment of a charities regulator on budgetary grounds. That was the wrong decision. We are now seeing some of the fall-out from the lack of standards applying across the 8,000 charities in the country. I hope the regulator and all the associated provisions in terms of financial disclosures and standards can be put in place without any further delay.

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