John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

It is already an offence under section 3 of the Street and House To House Collections Act 1962 to collect without a valid permit. Therefore the first part of amendment No. 98 is not necessary. I cannot accept an amendment to provide that the form and operation of the permit system shall be determined by a consultative panel. The permit system is determined by primary legislation in the Street and House To House Collections Act 1962 as amended by this Bill. It would be inappropriate for a consultative panel to be given such a role when the system is already set out in statute.

I cannot accept amendment No. 99 in the name of Deputy Wall. Section 86 provides a reserve power for the Minister to regulate the manner and conduct of fundraising. My Department has worked in close partnership with the sector in the past two years to develop non-statutory codes of good practice for charitable fundraising. The principles for these codes of good practice were published this year and discussions are taking place with the sector on the implementation and monitoring of the codes. It is intended that the reserve powers in section 86 for the Minister to introduce statutory regulation would only be invoked if the non-statutory codes of practice prove ineffective. It would be totally counterproductive to the process to force the Minister to introduce statutory codes of practice which would be the effect of amendment No. 99. Therefore I cannot accept the amendment.

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