Mr. Ivan Cooper:

On the “significant event” point, the impact of it will be, as has been articulated, that in decisions at board level, board members and trustees individually will wonder who is going to make the judgment about what is or is not significant. If something is not reported that may be coming down the line, the regulator could conceivably be in a position to determine post hocthat it was a significant event that should have been reported to it. When trustees are making decisions, they will say they cannot take a chance on something that could be significant and, therefore, will report it. That will add to this general culture of suspicion and worry among trustees.

Finally, while there is not a direct connection between the two provisions, there is something else worth observing here. As Ms Murphy noted, a provision will remove the requirement for the regulator to report to the Garda what it suspects might be an offence under the Charities Act. One way of understanding that might be that it will remove from the regulator a requirement to report a significant event to the Garda, yet at the same time, and in the same legislation, the regulator will be given a power to insist that charities report to it significant events that may or may not occur. There is a sense there will be a diminution of the extent to which the regulator itself will arguably be accountable or connected to the system while, at the same time, the requirement on charities to report significant events to it will be increased. It is worth understanding that, fundamentally, this is probably the most worrying aspect of the draft legislation, as it stands.