Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to express my condolences to the Minister of State on the death of his mam.

The Bill is really welcome. It is long overdue. Issues have arisen over the years that people have expressed concerns about. The advancement of human rights as a charitable purpose is really welcome. The alignment with the Companies Act for financial reporting will make a huge difference to the smaller charities in reducing the burden and getting their work done.

The release from liability of those on boards is also important, but the matter of issues that might have occurred prior to them becoming members of boards is important. It is very difficult to get people to become members of charity boards and directors. I will go into the difference about members later. Whatever we can do to make it easier for charities to recruit people to their boards is really welcome.

I commend The Wheel. It held a meeting last week with over 300 organisations. Many submissions have come in from them. I will pick up on some of those as well as ones I have identified. Under head 3, which contains to the new section 2 to be inserted into the 2009 Act, it is unclear what other office of the company applies here that would bring a company secretary into charity trustee status. If, for example, a company's secretary also fulfils the role of a data protection officer, will that trigger the trustee's status? It is not believed that was intended but the current wording could be interpreted that way. Does that make sense?