Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I wish to discuss the position in respect of the charities regulator. Even though the relevant legislation was enacted in 2009, the regulator was not put into place until 18 months ago. The Minister of State is very involved in the area of philanthropy, fundraising and charity. I am here to speak on behalf of the Exchequer, the public and the charity sector. One has to look into every section of the Government. We gave between €4.5 billion and €5 billion to the charity sector. I have read the answer given by the Minister for Justice and Equality in reply to a question in the Dáil recently. The regulator is in place but when will the Minister seek to give it teeth? There are problems and Christmas is coming. I am involved in a very good charity, the Jack & Jill Foundation, of which the Minister of State. Trust is a word that is terribly precious in our society. The Irish are incredible givers but trust is in short supply with charities because of events that occurred in recent years. In addition, information relating to other events is out there and will come to the surface.

I visited the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, OSCR, which does a very good job of administering 23,500 charities. It has 55 employees and a budget of £3.5 million. I am glad the Minister of State has increased the budget of the Irish regulator to €2.66 million for 2016. Perhaps this will help us to reach the necessary level. I hope the Minister of State will not give me the comforting answer that the regulator has compiled the statutory register of charities and is waiting for the remaining charities not established under the Companies Registration Office, CRO, to put in their paperwork and register. Before this regulator was put in place, the Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange, INKEx, had a register ready to go and most charities are registered with the CRO, so most of that work has been done. The public needs to know that charities are using their resources correctly and who exactly is responsible for running a particular charity. It also wants to know that the Government has an up to date database of charities, that charities are compliant, what is spent on marketing and payroll and where exactly their money is going.