Mr. Conor Woods:

We are starting from a blank canvas. On our establishment day we will have a complement of 11 staff, of whom seven will come from the Office of the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests. In considering what we want to achieve and the number of organisations and charities that we will be regulating, we can examine the structures in other countries, such as structures for compliance, monitoring, enforcement and regulation, with a view to emulating best international practice and standards. The charity sector is quite a large sector, with overall income of €5 billion or €6 billion. It is estimated to produce 3.5% of our GDP. We have to put proper resources in place if we are to deal with the sector. The board will have to evaluate our budgets and costings but we will certainly have to develop the office of the chief executive and her team if we are to execute the strategy. We could ultimately require between 20 and 30 staff if we are to deliver on what the Act requires from us. The board has only recently been formed, however, and these issues will be ironed out when we sign off on the strategy. We have a good feeling for the different arms of the organisational structure we require, and our requirements will certainly not be achieved with current staff numbers.