John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Amendments Nos. 48 and 49 as passed by the Seanad, which I am putting before the Dáil today, allow the Minister to prescribe the information to be included in annual reports submitted by charities and set out in more detail what the Minister may prescribe under the regulations in this regard. These amendments already passed by the Seanad provide sufficient flexibility and control with regard to annual reports to be submitted by charities. I do not think it is necessary, as envisaged in Deputy Ring's amendment, to oblige all charities to declare in their annual reports that they are actually charities or that they are of a voluntary nature and not commercial entities. Under the legislation as already drafted, the authority will have the power to request such statements from individual charities if it is considered necessary. Basically, the provisions of the legislation already ensure that only charities may be registered on the register of charities. To this end, the legislation defines charitable organisations quite explicitly. This definition does not require all charities to be voluntary in nature. Some charities are run by paid professionals.

With regard to Deputy Ring's concerns about charities becoming commercial entities, section 2, subsection (b)(ii) specifies that the property of a charity must be expended in pursuit of its charitable purposes, except for necessary expenses entailed by the running of a charity. The authority will have extensive control and inspection powers. Therefore, if bodies are on the register they must, under the legislation, fulfil all the criteria for being a charity and have no need to restate this in their annual reports. Furthermore, to ensure that charities on the register do not change or lose their charitable nature or status after they have registered, section 39(10) obliges charities to notify the authority of any changes to the object of the charitable organisation or trust concerned which might affect its charitable status. It would be an offence for charities not to do so, and a person guilty of an offence under the legislation would be liable to hefty fines, substantial prison sentences or both. In these circumstances, I cannot accept Deputy Ring's amendment.

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