Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have a serious problem with some organisations that identify as charities when sometimes clearly they are something quite different. Let us take the example of Pobal. It has annual expenditure of more than €450 million. It is a private wing of the Government which was set up to provide administrative services and distribute payments for various Departments. It even states on its website that "Pobal's activities and priorities are shaped by the context and policies laid out in ... the programme for Government". It is registered as a charity and deemed to be a not-for-profit organisation. I do not understand the reason it has been registered as a charity or, for that matter, how it even qualified for charitable status. Perhaps the Minister of State might explain the reason to me. In 2014 an internal audit report in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs expressed concerns about payments made to Pobal to monitor compliance among child care providers. The auditors could not understand the annual fee received of €2.5 million. They also stated the work had been awarded to Pobal without a tendering process which might have been in breach of EU directives, but nothing happened in that regard, which is a little worrying. We need to take a proper and in-depth look at organisations that identify as charities to check to see if they meet the criteria laid down.

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