Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is another instance where there is an awful lot of agreement in the room. I suppose it makes up for all those other times when there is not. We all know the huge level of work done by charities. It has been spoken about by many Deputies. At times, the State was not there and people found it necessary to create organisations and service providers and later the State came in with some funding. There have been difficulties but we know we would be in a far worse set of circumstances if that was not the case. Deputy Ó Laoghaire spoke about the bad instances, which we do not need to throw again into the public domain, where there was a lack of governance and regulation. We need to make sure there is a sufficient amount of transparency and accountability. It is about getting that point right and not absolutely hammering small organisations doing specific work. While some governance is needed, we do not need to create an imposition that will break the back of organisations, many of which are voluntary. Across Ireland, we still have a magnificent ethos of volunteerism which must be commended and facilitated in this legislation. It is welcome.

Many of the issues have already been dealt with. During this debate, we have spoken about the advancement of human rights. Obviously, nobody has any particular issue in that regard although the ICCL is not entirely sure on the language, which must lead to the advancement of human rights for it to be in any way meaningful. I agree with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. We have to make sure there is proper engagement with all of these organisations in the process. If there is room for improvement, nobody should be afraid of that. We all know the issues with people being able to put their organisations forward as charities without regulation or accountability or there actually being a charity. We have all seen scams over many years. Anything that can be done to make that as difficult as possible and provide protections to citizens needs to be done.

The news regarding St. John of God Community Services is welcome. We had reached a crux where it was going to transfer responsibility for its services. It concerns 8,000 people between children and adults, particularly in its disability services for some of our most needy citizens. It looks like the HSE met its representatives last night. There will be a two-week period during which, I hope, a deal can be done and we can facilitate those citizens and their families, who have been very worried.

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