John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

The Bill currently provides that charities must have the name and registered number of the charity on the collection box for cash collections, and on the garment worn by a non-cash collector. In addition, charities are required to display the charitable purpose in the same way. The sector has made some representations to the effect that were the charitable purpose to change, for example, were a charity to hold a collection in respect of a national disaster in one country followed by another collection in respect of another disaster in another country, under the Bill as currently defined it would have to purchase new garments or collection boxes, which would give rise to additional costs.

As I am ever mindful of the need not to impose additional compliance costs on charities, I propose to remove the requirement to show the name of the charitable purpose, though the charities would still be required to display their names and registered numbers. Without making it too specific, the name of the charity and the charity number must remain but not the particular purpose because that can vary and the charity would have to replace boxes, garments and so forth.