John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 10, to delete lines 18 and 19 and substitute the following:

""registered charitable organisation" means—

(a) a charitable organisation that is registered in the register, or

(b) a charitable organisation that, by virtue of section 39, is deemed to be registered in the register;".

The Government proposes a technical amendment, No. 12, on the basis of legal advice. In section 2, for the purpose of clarity, I propose to delete lines 18 and 19 on page 10 and insert the proposed amendment. This will enable those who have been awarded charitable tax exemption by the Revenue on the basis of their charitable status to be deemed to be registered by the authority until their charitable credentials can be endorsed by the authority in accordance with the Act. That particular matter has caused much concern.

The Government is proposing amendment No. 32 on the basis of legal advice. The technical amendment proposed will provide clarity to section 38(4), in which the words "A charitable organisation" are replaced with "Subject to section 39, a charitable organisation".

Amendment No. 55 sets out the circumstances under which the authority may remove a deemed organisation from the register. The new section mirrors that applicable to other non-deemed organisations in section 40 of the Bill as approved on Committee Stage in that the authority may remove an organisation where it has become an excluded body for the purposes of the Act; changes its name without the consent of the authority; has been convicted of an indictment or offence; has failed to comply with the accounts, reporting or audit provisions; has failed to comply with a request from the authority to provide information; has ceased to be a charitable organisation by an order of the High Court; or has a charity trustee who has become disqualified from holding such a position, also by order of the High Court. Similar provisions also apply to non-deemed organisations, ensuring an equitable approach overall.

With regard to amendment No. 44, it has been recognised that under the Bill as currently worded there is potentially a significant challenge for both the authority in setting up the initial register and the sector in complying with requirements as regards registration, etc. The framing of this legislation has always been based on the recognition that the vast majority of charities are small and may not have the resources to cope with a significant additional administrative burden.

I am also conscious there are some concerns, although I am confident there is no genuine basis for them, that some existing charities could lose their status when the Charities Bill is enacted and commenced. To address both these matters, I propose this amendment, which provides that any organisation holding a current CHY number from Revenue will be automatically deemed to be registered. I am sure this will allay any concerns that may have been felt by individual charities as regards their eligibility for charitable status when regulation is introduced.

To go into the detail of the amendment in question, there is provision for transfer of information between Revenue and the authority relating to deemed charities. There is a reverse power for the authority to request information from the charities where necessary. There is an enabling provision similar to that already in the Bill relating to non-deemed charities for the authority to impose a fee to meet any costs arising to it as a consequence of the registration process. The advice to me is that it would be remiss not to include such a provision, although I stress it is merely an enabling measure.

There are equivalent provisions in terms of the information the authorities shall enter into on the register in respect of deemed charities. These mirror the information that will be entered on the register for non-deemed charities. Amendment No. 86 is technical, inserted on the advice of the Office of the Attorney General. It defines charitable organisations with regard to non-cash collections and is part of the provisions of the Act which will bring non-cash collections within the scope of the collection permit system for the first time.

I will move this amendment and taken in conjunction with other provisions in the Act it will support an orderly and fair system of non-cash collections by charities.

See this speech in context