John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Amendments Nos. 4 and 42 have emerged from interdepartmental consultation relating to how a charity might act on dissolution. A fundamental principle of the Bill as currently drafted is that a charity should apply all its property for the stated charitable purpose, even when the charity is dissolved. In the course of the consultation, the possibility emerged that some charities might not be bound under their constitutions, on dissolution, to distribute the remaining property towards the charitable purpose. Under these two amendments, which address the potential loophole, any such charity would have to obtain the consent of the authority to pay any of the property to the members of the charity on dissolution of the charity.

Amendment No. 3 is a technical amendment which is being inserted on legal advice to ensure the definition of "charitable trust" in section 2 matches the definition of "charitable organisation" in the same section. Under the existing wording, there is a variance that needs to be addressed to ensure consistency.