Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the Minister's remarks. One of the problems the Minister may have is the complication of the scheme given the relatively small amounts of contributions. However, the donations scheme and the tax relief relating to donations to Third World charities and other charities, which basically allows the receiving body to claim a standard rate-based tax credit provided that whoever has contributed has given his or her name and address and is a taxpayer, might constitute a much easier way of doing it. It might not produce the same value of income as the original scheme used to produce.

However, it could be a very important stream of income with a high level of certainly where people joined a trade union. I urge that this aspect also be examined. It was introduced by Ruairí Quinn in the 1990s and has worked well for the various charities. They would probably like it to work better, but it has certainly worked quite well for them.