Mr. John Farrelly:

That is quite critical, depending on the size of the charity. There are different types of charities. In the case of some of the charities that have not yet complied, we believe one of the reasons is that they do not have the capacity to comply in terms of the annual report and other requirements. They might not have a large amount of money and they might not be engaged in the transaction of money. They might be engaged in the transaction of services at a local level. We have engaged Volunteer Ireland, which has 21 centres throughout the country. All of those small charities can go to Volunteer Ireland centres where they will be facilitated and brought through the process to register, step-by-step, so as to come into compliance.

A large amount of charities are now obsolete and redundant. With regard to bringing confidence to the sector, we will write to those non-compliant charities for the last time and then we will bring through a process of taking them off the register. To be honest, that will not affect anybody because they are no longer doing anything. They are not providing a charitable purpose so there is no risk to the community, and we wish to make sure of that. It will also give confidence to the community that there is a proper register in place.

The second action we are taking which will give confidence, rather than Part 4, relates to the registration and how we register charities at present. I was surprised, having come from the nursing home sector, at how many people wish to set up charities. It is a large number of people, and I have been in the North, Scotland and England. We anticipate that there could be 800 applications a year for charitable status. However, those people might not realise what they are applying for and that they might not necessarily have to be a charity to do a great deal of good for specific people. We want to work with them on that.

In terms of risk, we must get the structure in place to ascertain what the risk is with charities. One way of doing that is through the Charities Act 2009. A number of areas in that Act require regulations to be prescribed. No regulations have been prescribed as yet in the Charities Act, but there is room to put them in place. My preference is that we consult with the sector and the public before we regulate, because many people are afraid. They think regulation means enforcement, that we will close them down and so forth. For the majority of people, that is not the case. It is for the people who are non-compliant, because there is an issue when they breach regulations. I can give an example. We wish to conduct public consultation this quarter on fund-raising. We wish to issue guidance on fund-raising, because there is public unease around that. We want to advise the Department on regulations for fund-raising and the manner and conduct of fund-raisers. We will go to Cork, Galway and Dublin to consult on that, as well as on the web, so we can ensure that we have the pulse of what the public wants.

In that regard, there are also the accounting regulations on how charities account for their money. Many people tend to misunderstand and do not know the charities law very well. Even with some of the charities we are dealing with now where we are not satisfied with their compliance levels and we are acting on that, when one meets the people involved they tend to give a look when we tell them that it is our job to ensure that they are accountable to their donors, beneficiaries and the public. The public tends to be forgotten, even though it is in the law. There is an amount of work for us to do to provide good guidance on, for example, what a charity is and the responsibility of charity trustees, and then to monitor against that.

There is a job of work to put the structure in place. I am hoping we will put that structure in place and that we will create a balance and commitment in the sector, while at the same time having the powers, where we identify clear coherent risk and where there is reckless behaviour that is not acceptable, to get straight in and sort it out. That is why I wish to get the agreements in place. However, that information will mainly come from the public in terms of concerns and ringing us. We then examine that information. That is it. We get the information, we risk assess it and we seek assurances from the entity. When it sends us something and we are not assured because it is opaque and not transparent, we will bring it up another level. We give plenty of chances to reassure us, but the entity must assure us and must be transparent. That is the approach. It works. It worked for the nursing homes, so hopefully it will apply in the charities sector.