Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply from which I do take comfort. I ask him to imagine an analogy. If he and I had started a business and were spending €4.5 billion in approximately 12,000 charities, we would want to know which of them were efficient, how the funds were being used and the value being delivered to the taxpayer. I welcome the extra budget provision, for which the Minister has fought, for the regulator. I hope the Minister of State, following our interaction, will inform the Minister that I cannot stress enough the importance of this matter. The public wants to go on giving, but we need to give the regulator teeth. If there are complaints or inefficiencies in the sector, we need to give enough money to the regulator to staff the authority.

I referred to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, OSCR. Scotland has a similar charity landscape to ours. We can achieve a satisfactory result. The sum of €4.5 billion is a lot for the Exchequer. One could sleepwalk into the area because a lot is going on. We have to keep trust in the sector and the sector on the straight and narrow. It is wonderful. If we were to talk long and hard about it, we would find every single sector of Irish society was dependent on the charity sector. For instance, there are many good charities doing work in the medical, hospital, education and disability fields.