Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not the first time I have said to the Minister that I have good time for him. He listens to people and he does react. He came to County Louth last week over the flooding. I am a wee bit concerned with the Minister's answers. I thought, perhaps, that he might give me more of a personal answer.

We have Save our Homeless Dundalk doing an absolutely fantastic job and I will put my hands up to say that the homelessness section in Louth County Council is also doing a fantastic job. We have concerns. I ask the Minister the following questions. How are charities supposed to meet the very high bar set by the charity regulator in terms of governance and compliance reliance, as well as combat the rise in demand, if the funding for staff and resources is not there? How are volunteers to engage and assist people in financial poverty if the charity holds no reserves, or how can it carry unfunded deficits from one year to another? How are charities to help people get back to work via the community employment schemes?

I know first-hand the number of homeless people who come into me. These are people who fell on bad times. Only for the likes of the Save our Homeless Dundalk charity and Louth County Council we would have serious problems.

Would the Minister consider coming to Dundalk to meet our Save our Homeless Dundalk people and he can then see the amount of work that they are doing? We are not looking for big money. Most of these people are volunteers and all they are looking for is some kind of assistance from the Government. One more time, I ask the Minister please to come to Dundalk and have a look at the Save our Homeless Dundalk charity. I would be delighted to show him what a fantastic job it is doing.

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