Ms Helen Martin:

More than 44% of the concerns raised with us relate to organisations that are not charities. This is why we speak about the more than 50% that are registered charities. We are reliant on concerns being raised. Either we spot it or somebody comes to us having spotted it. We will immediately try to contact the individuals concerned.

Obviously, it is an offence if it is holding itself out as a charity when it is not a registered charity. When we follow it up, sometimes it transpires that the organisation is simply unaware that it was supposed to be registered. Such cases are passed on to the registration team to enable the organisations in question to engage in the full registration process.

We work with An Garda Síochána on much more difficult areas like the house-to-house collection of clothing bags by bogus charities. When we use the contact details on the plastic bags that are provided to households, we often find that the number rings out and we cannot get through to anybody. We intend to undertake a public awareness campaign in this area. We previously issued a public notice to let the public know specifically about this problem. Ultimately, the public plays a role in this area. When people think they are donating to a charity, we want them to check the register first to make sure it is a registered charity. We have engaged in some publicity in this regard. Next week, we will issue some public notices to alert people to the phenomenon of bogus clothing collections. One of the reasons bogus organisations get involved in this area is that there is money to be made. If people were not donating bags of clothes to these organisations and were instead ensuring they donated to charities only, some of this bogus activity would be curtailed.