Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It seems there is a lack of proportionality in the way the Charities Regulator deals with big groups and small groups. It was necessary to introduce regulation but I always had reservations in that community trust is fundamental in so many small local charities around the country. I refer to where the community knows the individuals concerned. Applying the same criteria to small local charities as to big international charities, whose staff knock on doors in urban areas and are not known to anybody, is wrong. We must ensure proportionality in the application of the rules by the Charities Regulator. Corporate governance is important but it cannot become so great that it sucks considerable sums of money from the funds of very small groups through auditing fees and fees for experts required to fill out forms and so on. Where this happens, the little group that handles a few thousand euro cannot do so anymore. I ask the Minister of State to consider this issue because it is serious. We were worried about it from the very beginning of this road. At every level of bureaucracy, there is such a cautious approach taken that there is no proportionality left.