Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister and his staff for their many long and courteous briefing sessions on this complex legislation. I also thank Áine Kilroy for her assistance. The legislation was first introduced in the House last December and Committee Stage was dealt with in January. We encountered many problems with this complicated legislation in terms of obtaining legal advice.

I welcome the legislation, as do the charitable organisations. I hope it works. We do not want to over-regulate charities, who do a valuable job, but to make it easier for them to do their job. The general public welcomes this legislation which will regulate charities in terms of permits and their accountability to the regulator. We have a number of regulators in this State and do not necessarily require another one. Perhaps the Minister of State will take another look at this issue which I had great difficulty earlier trying to get agreement on.

I hope this legislation works and deals with issues such as those relating to mass cards and clothing collections, which is a big issue for people. The people of Ireland are generous; they are good at supporting charities and their own. However, they hate to be ripped off by unscrupulous people.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for his courtesy during the debate. I enjoyed participating in the passage of this new legislation. I hope that if a problem arises with it, it will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

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