John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

We are coming at this from slightly different points. Senator White said we are here with a clean sheet of paper and we can go anywhere we want, but the premise behind the legislation was to reflect what is happening currently, and primarily in that regard the Revenue Commissioners were the key people. Most of the discussion on what were deemed to be charitable purposes occurred around what Revenue was doing because we wanted the legislation to specifically maintain the status quo and we have always acknowledged that this was the first step. I do not disagree with what the Senators want to achieve but that was not the thinking behind introducing this measure. The first measure we tried to introduce was legislation to reflect as closely as possible the current position.

The charitable purposes referred to in the Bill came about specifically through lengthy discussions with Revenue. The Bill is to reflect what is happening and not exclude those groups that currently have charitable status. That is dealt with by the word "deeming". I take the point about a group that may lose its status subsequently, but there is an appeals mechanism in place, to the tribunal and the High Court. The Bill was drafted in such a way as to accommodate all the organisations that are——