Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Aideen Hayden today and Senators Rónán Mullen and Paul Coghlan yesterday in highlighting the serious issue that has arisen in terms of the media spotlight on the charities sector. None of us should assume that the issues that were identified are unique to the Central Remedial Clinic. It seems clear that if all the charities operating in Ireland were examined closely, further cases of poor practices in management and fund-raising would likely be exposed. Some €7 billion - €5 billion of it from the Exchequer and between €1.5 billion and €2 billion from the public - is going into the charities sector, and 100,000 people are employed in it. Yet there is no watchdog or regulator.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, is working on this issue but, in the meantime, I urge the Leader to facilitate a robust debate in the new year. The media have tried their best to cast a spotlight, but simply naming the salary of a single chief executive officer is not sufficient when we consider, for instance, that one particular charity has a number of CEOs working throughout the country. Revealing the salary of one of them will not give us a true reflection of the situation. The question arises as to whether charities that receive in excess of 80% of their funding from the State - some of them being in receipt of €200 million or €300 million - should be called charities or should instead be considered non-governmental organisations coming within the remit of the HSE. Many smaller charities are suffering greatly from the revelations in the media. I join colleagues in calling for a debate on this whole area as we proceed with the regulation aspect.