Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State and the team of officials in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for preparing this Bill after so many years. The introduction of the Bill not only enlivens debate on this important issue but focuses the minds of the public on the many shortcomings of the legislation. I warmly welcome the Bill and respect what it seeks to achieve in regulating charities for the 21st century.

For the past 40 years or so charities have been governed by stagnant legislation which is neither appropriate nor all-encompassing or enough to cope with the changing pace of charity work and fundraising and our modern lifestyle. Most worrying, any group can set up as a charity and when it has the reference number supplied by the Revenue Commissioners this number is often mistaken for an official registration number from a registry that does not exist. It is necessary to overhaul the legislation to inspire confidence in the public and deliver a level of accountability while supporting charities.

Public confidence has been battered by a lack of transparency and some cases of charity fraud. All genuine charities want to see positive development and radical reformation of the system. We have heard about the benefits of the new Bill. I welcome the establishment of a charities regulatory authority with powers to investigate, and to support charities. The Bill will for the first time define charity in our legislation. Nobody would disagree with the establishment of the register of charities making it an offence for any group or organisation not to register if it fundraises in the State. I wholeheartedly welcome the requirement of charities to provide accounting information to the new regulator on a staggered basis depending on its size. The public will welcome the transparency provided for in the new legislation.

The shortcomings of the system mean that we do not know how many people work in, and are paid by, the charity sector, the annual income of some of the country's largest charities, the percentage of the adult population which subscribes or donates to charities, or the percentage of the population which has volunteered for charity work in the past year. Such is the sector's desire for reform that some charities have voluntarily provided financial information. The new legislation will fill the information gap.

The Minister of State said it would be impossible to over-estimate the valuable work done by charities but it is similarly impossible to over estimate the public's desire to engage with charities through donations, volunteerism or fundraising. We cannot afford to lose this admirable spirit of charity and the Bill ensures that we will not do so. Charities recognise the immediate benefit of reform. The existence of a regulatory authority leads to greater trust and increases the perceived integrity of charitable organisations. The perception of charities has taken some serious hits recently, such as the fraud scandals, the negative impact of aggressive fundraising and paranoia about the lack of transparency. Some high profile charities, for example, GOAL and Concern, both of which I admire, have been involved in scandals.

I have talked to my family and friends about the changing face of charity, as I am sure all Deputies have done. People ask: what is a charity, where can one find out about it, whether the fundraiser is being paid, whether a large administration runs it, who receives the money and whether it will go directly to the cause or will be spent elsewhere?

Many of us have been rugby-tackled on the street by clipboard-wielding charity workers only to be told later that these people are paid for their work. Lack of trust in charities remains the largest stumbling block to fundraising and the Charities Bill combats this head-on to the immediate benefit of all organisations. I am not against the "chuggers" on our streets. They contribute significantly to the revenue and success of charities. This is one of many new and innovative ways to fundraise. However, they need to be regulated and supported to show the public that their activities are legitimate and it is alright to give them confidential information, such as bank account details.

A 2002 survey put the proportion of the population which donates to charity at approximately 90% which is some millions of people. The figure may have declined since then. We simply do not know how many people contribute to charitable collections and this information gap demotivates many people and makes donations at times seem unattractive.

We are such a charitable people that many foreign charities have set up on our shores to take advantage of our humane and compassionate nature. That is why I welcome the Bill. People deserve to carry on this honourable tradition with a system they can trust. To ensure that it is as effective as possible I am concerned about registering small charities. I welcome the intention to compel charities to register and provide detailed documentation on the running of their organisations in order to be permitted to continue their work. I also welcome the staggered measures for providing account details, according to the size of the charity and its income. I am primarily concerned that the kind-hearted people who fundraise in isolated areas once or twice a year may be subject to the same regulations. Surely they do not have to submit to the same accounting responsibilities as a small charity. The Wheel advocacy organisation raised similar objections in its submission document on the Bill, detailing its concerns for spontaneous acts of community fundraising, and querying whether the new system will cover these events. The Bill should include further scope for these cases.

I also welcome the provision for the introduction of a permit regime. The system for many collections by charities and charity workers who apply to their local Garda superintendents for the right to fundraise in a particular area is outdated and often under-utilised. The Bill provides for a standard permit in cases where a charity worker operates under the recently developed fundraising methods such as "chugging". The Bill should be further amended to include a widespread introduction of permit holding for all who collect for charity by whatever means. The relevant permit should also be accompanied by a recognisable ID identifying the person as a collector for a charity. The introduction of a standard ID permit system means legal documentation can be furnished on request to members of the public; be that on a street, during a charity function or at a doorstep. Consideration will also have to be given to the validity period of these permits to ensure monitoring of the system is ongoing. Permit holders should be required to reapply for their permits annually, perhaps within a calendar year.

I mentioned the introduction of permits for all those collecting money, but there will have to be exceptions. The permit system could not be applied to individual collectors: members of the public who engage in isolated acts of fundraising through sporting events, marathons, cake sales, sales of work and school fundraising. It would not be necessary or appropriate to force these kind-hearted people to go through a rigorous application process in order to sell cakes after Mass. In these cases, further discussions are needed as to the role and definition of individual fundraisers in the new legislation to allow them to carry out their irregular or once-off fundraising activities. These individuals and amateur athletes, mini-marathon runners, bakers, skydivers and bungee jumpers have no doubt contributed tens of millions to the charity sector, however the new permit system would not be suitable for them.

We need to protect the right of the individual to raise funds for his or her chosen charity on an irregular basis. We need to pin down language in the Bill which will exempt individuals from the rigorous controls facing smaller charities and not discourage them in their valuable work. To over-legislate the activities of these individuals and dissuade them from their volunteerism and fundraising could lead to the crippling of one of the charity sector's most successful methods of yielding revenue.

On the other side of the scales, the rights of the individual to fundraise on a voluntary basis must be distinguished from the activities of tiny charity organisations that have cropped up all over the country: the likes of mysterious clothing collectors who drop stickers through letter-boxes advertising clothing collections. While a number of these charities are legitimate, many media outlets have exposed fraudsters who collect bags from unsuspecting households and send them for resale abroad. In some cases the unwanted items from these bags end up littered across the countryside, a practice known as fly-tipping, and this has happened in my constituency of Dublin North. Fingal County Council has spent substantial amounts of money tackling this behaviour.

I mentioned that I believe charities will warmly welcome this Bill, and the welcomes will come thick and fast where bogus clothing collectors are operating. I hear anecdotal evidence of bogus collectors monitoring legitimate charities, like Oxfam and Concern, to steal their bags before the official collection arrives. The loss of revenue to real charities is great and stands to be even greater since these so-called charities have begun to request greater donations of household goods like cosmetics and perfumes, as mentioned in the media recently. The bogus operators are not only cynical but callous in their intent to profit from and redirect funding materials meant for legitimate charities. The most worrying aspect of all is that, at the moment, these operations are not illegal.

It is these fraudsters and scam artists who must be weeded out and exposed under the new permit system, which will simultaneously protect legitimate organisations. Furthermore, I call for funding to be made available, on the enactment of the Bill, to launch an awareness campaign to raise the profile of the effects of the Bill regarding the permit and ID system which will be introduced. Similarly, financial supports must be put in place to cater for the additional costs generated by being part of a regulated system.

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