Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Martin asked me who was at the meeting. I cannot recall, except to say that I was there myself with President Clinton and a couple of officials. I can send on the details to him.

As far as I can recall, tax exiles and tax on exiles was not discussed. We had a discussion in respect of the work of Philanthropy Ireland. I indicated earlier that the President was in the country to attend an event relating to Philanthropy Ireland. He is very aware of Ireland’s efforts to increase the activity in terms of philanthropic giving. The forum on philanthropy and fund-raising set out a target to increase philanthropic giving by 10% year-on-year in Ireland from its current level of approximately €500 million per annum to €800 million per annum by 2016. The drivers were the national giving campaign, improving the general fiscal environment and the opportunity to give, developing fund-raising capacity among not-for-profit organisations and creating a national social innovation fund. Since the launch of the forum‘s report in July 2012 a good deal of progress was made in the implementation of the recommendations. The national giving campaign - the 1% difference – has been launched by Philanthropy Ireland. The tax treatment of donations to charities has been simplified and decoupled from business tax incentives.

A road map has been set out for implementation of the Charities Act and establishing a charities regulator which the Minister announced some time ago. The social innovation fund has been incorporated and a board appointed. All of these things are moving in the right direction.

I take Deputy Micheál Martin's point on dangers developing in Northern Ireland and cross-Border issues if there is no constant engagement and interaction. As I stated to Deputy Mary Lou MacDonald, these talks followed the invitation of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister to Dr. Haass. I met him on a number of occasions, as did the Tánaiste, and we stated we were very supportive of his efforts. People may ask why they were not able to conclude them. It turned out that the most contentious issue was that of flags, as distinct from the past or parades. They made progress on all three fronts, on some more than others. It is fair to state that while they did not conclude by being accepted by everybody, there is a basis for moving forward at different levels on each of the three issues. The five parties involved intend to meet in the coming period, of which we are very supportive. I hope to travel to London early in March to speak further to Prime Minister Cameron and that from our perspective and theirs the support of both Governments will continue for the efforts of the parties to make further progress. I hope we will keep engaged and involved. We are cognisant of the dangers to which the Deputy referred and I share his concern.

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