Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not necessarily just about the time and effort, although those are considerations. There is also a cost implication to some of this stuff. People are trying to ensure boards or community associations are properly run. There may be three, four, five or six people employed. Some organisations would not even have that many and a lot of them might only have two or three employees. Those organisations are trying to ensure they have the correct policies and all that kind of stuff. Perhaps they have to have some sort of contractual arrangement with some of their tenants or some of the people who use a building and so on. That requires a consultation with a lawyer to get these things drafted. Laypeople do not have the skills to ensure such documents are watertight. The situation is similar in respect of the Charities Regulator. Someone who is seeking a constitution or articles of association will have to spend money to ensure the work is done properly. That issue needs to be addressed because it can draw on the limited incomes of community organisations when we would much rather see that money go to things that benefit people more directly. Obviously, these things benefit the community but we would prefer the money to go towards things that more directly and visibly benefit the community.

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