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

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 37, to delete lines 9 to 11 and substitute the following: “(4) A charitable organisation shall not enter into an agreement or make an appointment—

(a) in contravention of the express provisions of its constitution,

(b) unless the charity trustees of the charitable organisation (not counting a charity trustee who is a party to the agreement or appointment or a charity trustee who has a personal connection with a party to the agreement or appointment) are satisfied that the agreement or appointment would be in the best interests of the charitable organisation, and

(c) subject to subsection (6), without the prior approval of the Authority further to an application under section 88D.”.

Charity trustees are the people who exercise control over and are legally responsible for the management of the charity. The amendment provides clarity that charity trustees in the first instance must satisfy themselves that the agreement or appointment which it proposes to enter into is in the best interests of the charity. This includes that the agreement or appointment is not in contravention of its constitution.

Amendment No. 18 is a technical amendment of a drafting nature and is necessitated by amendment No. 17. It allows that the aforementioned principle, namely, that a charitable organisation shall not enter into an agreement or make an appointment in contravention of the express provisions of its constitution, is now contained in amendment No. 17.

Amendment No. 19 is also a technical amendment or drafting nature required to renumber a subsection due to the deletion of 88C(6) in amendment No. 18.