Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will work backwards on that because the Bill provides that an individual who is doing this now would be committing an offence. Previously, groups of individuals that were not organisations were going around purporting to be organisations. The Bill proposes that if in an individual is discovered doing so, he or she is committing an offence. That will improve things. It will not solve the issue because by its nature, it is very difficult to pin down. These individuals do not have offices or set operations. That is the hardest thing about it.

Almost on annual basis, if not more regularly these days, the Charities Regulator tries to put information campaigns out in the public domain about checking the bona fides of a company that puts a slip in the door. My experience is they tend not to put any number on the slip, because if they put even a fake number on it, someone might check it and discover the number is fake. My experience is that they do not put a number on the slip and just hope for the best. Unfortunately, people go for it. An awareness-raising exercise is part of the solution.

I will take away and look at what Deputy Paul Donnelly has raised on conflict of interest. I believe I will be saying that a couple of more times. I had not thought about or yet seen the detail on the obligation to remove a trustee with regard to bankruptcy. My instinct tells me we would need to look at what happens to people who discharge their bankruptcy in other situations and whether their slate is wiped clean, so to speak. We would need to have some consistency in that regard.

Head 29 relating to section 89, is around the CEOs potentially being employees. This goes back to the potential company secretary issue. We need to do more on to clarify the distinction between a trustee who is not getting paid for a trustee role and someone on the board who also is being paid for a different role. I acknowledge there is a bit of work to be done there. I did not quite get the Deputy's point on tap donations but I will take away the Deputy's point on merged charities and have a look at it. The Deputy might go back over the point on section 39 around tap donations.