Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The worrying part is that the Minister of State's Department may put something in place. He has acknowledged the importance of a group or organisation collating all the data.

I note that there are 34,000 organisations and 165,000 people who are employed. There is much information and data out there that are really important to policymakers and non-governmental organisations for them to be able to put cases forward in relation to the community, voluntary and charity sector. As I said, and I will say it again, I am concerned that while the Minister of State's Department may do something into the future and is looking at it, there was an organisation in place that was providing all of the information and live daily updates on the information. I hear what the Minister of State is saying in terms of the business case having been made, but I think that closing it down and us being unable to get those data is something that is very concerning.

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