John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Before we start to discuss the specific amendments before the House today, I briefly want to clarify for Members why I am returning to the House with more than 80 amendments to the Bill as originally passed by the House in last November.

The amendments fall into a number of categories and a good proportion of them are presentational, drafting and technical type amendments on the advice of Parliamentary Counsel.

There are a number of substantive amendments and a number of those emerged from issues raised by Members across the floor of both this House and the Seanad. I gave a commitment at that stage that we would address issues such as mass cards and Daffodil Day.

It has always been my approach to listen to the issues raised during the debates, irrespective of from which side of the House they emanated, and to take on board the positive suggestions where possible. As I stated, many of the amendments before the House today have emerged from Opposition amendments in both Houses and I thank all Members of both Houses for their constructive input to the Bill since its introduction. As a direct result and a consequence of this inclusive approach, I believe we now have a much improved Bill. Changes made to the Bill in the Seanad have been broadly welcomed by the sector and it is telling that none of the amendments before the Dáil today was opposed in the Seanad. I look forward to outlining these amendments to the Members and I shall now turn to the specific ones.

Amendments Nos. 1, 5, 40 and 46 were added during the passage of the Bill through the Seanad on foot of discussions with the Department of Education and Science and the Office of the Attorney General. As it stands, education bodies such as schools, student councils, parent associations and vocational educational committees are already subject to oversight by the Department of Education and Science, and on occasion by other bodies such as the Committee of Public Accounts. It is not the intention of the Charities Bill to impose a significant additional administrative burden on organisations, and yet the principle is that all charities must be entered on the register of charities, including education bodies referred to here.

However, these amendments will exempt education bodies from the need to submit annual reports and the annual audit examination of accounts provisions. Education bodies, however, which are not charities, should not and will not be exempted from the need to keep books of accounts. It is important that charities should be able to accurately account for their financial situation at all times. I consider the exemption from some of these accounting and auditing requirements was appropriate as many of these education bodies are already required to keep and submit accounts to other sources. It will, of course, still be within the gift of the authority to request any information from these bodies, where necessary.

In keeping with the graduated approach to regulation, I also considered that there is merit to easing the regulating burden on charities that are extremely small, with limited resources. Accordingly, in the case of such charities with an income or expenditure of less than €10,000 per annum, I am providing that they be exempted from the accounts and audit or examination provisions of the Bill. There is scope for this threshold to be increased to up to €50,000, if considered appropriate, over time. I believe it would be unreasonable to expect a charity of that scale to provide examined accounts, although as with education bodies they will be required to produce an annual report, which may also contain financial information. Members should bear in mind that the authority is empowered to request information from any charity, including the small charities and the education bodies, as appropriate. To achieve this outcome a number of amendments were required.

Amendment No. 1 clarifies that "the Act of 1998" refers to the Education Act 1998. Amendment No. 5 defines an "education body" for the purposes of the Bill. Amendment No. 40 exempts both education bodies and small charities from the requirement to submit an annual statement of accounts to the new authority, while amendment No. 46 exempts the same organisations from the audit and examination provisions. I believe these amendment strike an appropriate balance and provide fair and equitable oversight, and I move the amendments.

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