John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

This is a technical amendment inserted on legal advice. The Bill has always separated the decisions of the new Charities Regulatory Authority from those of the Revenue Commissioners in respect of tax matters. It is not appropriate for the new authority to have any role in respect of tax matters which are the domain of the Minister for Finance and the Revenue Commissioners alone.

Every charitable organisation, as well as having exclusively charitable purposes must have a public benefit. The effect of this amendment is to remove any doubt that Revenue will be in any way bound by any determination of the authority as to whether the purpose of the organisation is of public benefit.

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