Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much, Mr. Cooper. You are correct that it is important that we get a balance here. There has been a handful of bad eggs and a handful of very high profile cases. However, as Ms Myler, pointed out, this legislation has only been implemented for the last eight years. In particular in the charities sector, much of the financial side of it has been in abeyance for the last couple of years because of Covid-19. We are talking about a very narrow window of application for this legislation. One of the key questions here is whether the bad eggs we have seen over the last couple of years are an overhang from the lack of regulation up to now or as a result of weak regulation that we currently have in place. That is something the committee is going to have to tease out both in terms of the general scheme before us and the legislation when it comes before us later in the year.

I thank the witnesses for the evidence they have provided this morning, and for their engagement with colleagues over the last number of weeks and more particularly for the detailed submission they have provided. This is very helpful as guidance to the committee in terms of us coming to a conclusion with regard to the pre-legislative scrutiny, but also in terms of informing us in advance of the legislation itself coming forward. Witnesses should feel free to come back and engage with the committee, and bring back further issues of concern they have at the stage of pre-legislative scrutiny, and after the legislation itself has been published. It will assist individual committee members and the committee as a whole in ensuring what we all want, which is robust legislation that ensures we have a strong vibrant charity sector in this country into the future and that we have legislation that stands the test of time. I thank the witnesses for their time this morning.

The committee is going to move into private session.