John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join in the welcome to Ms Jody Blake. I hope she missed us as much as we missed her. It is great to her back at work. I share in the expression of condolences to Senator Eamonn Coghlan on his recent bereavement. We were all very shocked and upset to hear of Senator Jimmy Harte's accident on Friday night. It is a real mark of the man to note the number of telephone calls I received from people of all parties in this House and the other House. It is unique to see the esteem in which he is held. We hope and trust he will be back here in the Chamber very soon. We could say that Jimmy will be winning matches again here.

I wish to draw the attention of the House to a crisis in the Cork branch of Samaritans, the suicide charity, which is running out of money. It takes a budget of €80,000 to run the Cork office. It seems that due to a falling-off in contributions the available funding will be about half of that amount. Samaritans depend very much on the Christmas period to raise a substantial amount of money. I hope they will be successful in doing so.

This brings me to the main point I wish to raise. I ask for a discussion in the Chamber on the ways in which some charities are being funded. All charities are very worthy and very good but some of them are doing work which might rightly better fall to the State. Perhaps the State should reassess how it funds many of our charities.