Charities regulator urgency
Senator Kelly calls for the charities regulator to be established urgently, citing poor fundraising returns, and also urges the Government to revisit alternative-energy targets.
I support Senator John Whelan's call for a charities regulator to be put in place as soon as possible. I raised the issue in the House yesterday when I pointed out that for every Rehab scratch card that was bought for €1 only a quarter of a cent got to the charity, which is why this matter is urgent.
I also support Senator John Whelan's call for us to revisit our alternative energy targets. I had predicted yesterday's announcement that the targets were no longer legally binding. I ask the Government and the civil servants to desist now from blaming the European Union. When we raise the issue of green energy, they blame the European Union and say we have targets and so on. As we no longer have them and they are not legally binding, they should get off that space and start looking at the real issues. If they continue to blame the European Union, I wonder what are their individual agendas.
Senator Darragh O'Brien spoke about the how the banking inquiry was so slow in coming about and that people were so angry. Nothing is happening, it is business as usual for the banks and the people are paying. It is vital that this be dealt with. In addition, the insolvency legislation is not working. The Insolvency Service of Ireland employs 90 staff at its offices on the Conyngham Road and there has been one resolution to date using the insolvency legislation. It appears that only people with money can access the service. Nobody in authority can tell us who pays for the personal insolvency practitioner. The reality is that personal insolvency practitioners will take on cases where - to paraphrase an expert - there is meat on the bone, in other words something in it for them. The real people who are affected are getting no service whatever from it. The experts are saying that the big problem is the banking veto, which must be removed. Members should watch this space because this will be a major issue over the next year. Some 132,000 families are threatened with losing their homes and nothing is being done for the real people on the ground.