Mr. John Farrelly:

The authority established a consultative panel on fund-raising to get a good sense of this issue before certain parts of the Act were commenced, specifically the regulations for fund-raising. Commencement decisions, however, are not in my gift.

We also wanted to think through certain parts of the Act as their implementation could have unintended outcomes for charities. One must not forget that charities compete with other not-for-profit entities also engaged in fund-raising. We wanted to get this right. The panel is chaired by a member of the authority's board and we expect it to produce a report next year. We will also move towards issuing and approving guidance on fund-raising to create confidence in this area. We will work with the Department on the regulations.

In general, we are pleased with what is in place. We must now ensure we get the prescriptive element underpinning the legislation right because if we get it wrong, we will impose an unnecessary burden. Our regulations should not deal with issues covered by other State bodies. Getting this right will, therefore, require us to do some thinking. While some may consider this to be a risky approach, I would prefer to adopt a step-by-step strategy that has been thought out because we need to get the register right. The compliance section wants members of the public to become our eyes and ears and to assure them that we will pursue any information they provide.

The Act has many good points. From speaking to departmental officials, it is clear the Department will respond if we believe further miscellaneous provisions are needed. For example, those who wish to become charity trustees are not subjected to probity or fitness tests, even on registration. All we can do is make proposals we believe would be useful and hope they are introduced in a miscellaneous provisions Bill. We accept, however, that many other issues are being addressed in legislation before the Dáil. The Act should be sufficient to get us to the starting line.