Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is the reason the Oireachtas and its committees are playing their part in bringing about that transparency and accountability, which is the way it should be. The Deputy stated that ordinary people were being hammered. Deputy Boyd Barrett should note that these are the same ordinary people who give their direct debits or donate a few euro or a few cent to the flag days, the collection boxes and the Santa bear collections because they believe in a service that is being provided. It is the same people who work in and use that service. It is of fundamental importance that they understand that their charity, whatever it might be, is properly run and absolutely audited above board and that such audits are published in order that people can choose in the knowledge that if they contribute to charity X, their money is going where it is intended.

The question of homelessness was raised. This issue has been going on for a very long time. The Government has a stated policy objective to end homelessness by the end of 2016, and the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is dealing with this. Clearly, the four Dublin local authorities operate as a single region, with Dublin City Council acting as the leading authority, as this provides a more strategic approach when addressing homelessness. A lot of money has been paid out in this regard over the past few years. I understand the Minister of State has set up a high-level task force comprising Mark Kennedy of Mazars, Sylda Langford, a former civil servant, and Tony Fahey of UCD. That group has met representatives of the State and the non-governmental sector on an ongoing basis since its appointment and it sent its first report to the Minister of State on 19 December last. I might state that I recently saw a picture of a man in the newspaper who was described as having been homeless for ten years. How can this be? He has been homeless for ten years, yet we have all the agencies that deal with these cases.

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