David Norris (Independent)

That is an extraordinary omission that the Minister of State should consider because practically everything else has been defined, down to the hairpins. For example, it defines "church" as the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, albeit not, I am glad to say, exclusively, as there is permission for other churches to survive. However, there is no definition of religion although there are definitions of all kinds of other matters. If one is dealing with religion and if one intends to exclude humanism, the least one should do is to provide a definition of religion.

I do not know whether the Minister of State, as a good sportsman, can take an amendment on the hop as he would a ball, but to be helpful, the Northern Ireland Bill provides for a statutory definition of religion that includes express references to faiths that do not profess belief in a god, as well as to polytheistic religions. This statutory definition, which was first seen in the English Charities Act 2006, is cognisant of the multicultural make-up of Northern Irish society. This recognition of religious difference goes beyond the law in Ireland, where the definition of religion remains a matter of common law interpretation based primarily on belief in, and worship of, a supreme being. The proposed statutory definition in Northern Ireland should facilitate the registration of nontheistic organisations, including, for example, humanist, Confucian and even Buddhist organisations as religious charities if they otherwise satisfy the public benefit test in Northern Ireland.

While I am unsure whether it is possible to take this on board, this Bill deals with a matter in which religion is central to at least one section. However, no definition has been provided. I do not make this point with an intention to carp or to water down the beliefs of any particular church. I am a regular churchgoer, but I do not approve of the current practice whereby everyone, when reciting the Nicene Creed, is obliged to say "We believe". I know what I believe but I have not the slightest idea of what the people in the next pew believe and I will not say anything on their behalf. Their religious views and values probably alter in respect of the state of their digestion, the time of day and so on. Moreover, there are certain things I simply do not say. As I do not believe in the resurrection of the body, I will not say it. I am happy to believe in the resurrection of the dead.

Members should try to provide a definition of religion and, in its absence, they must go in the direction of Senator Hannigan's amendment. I am neither a humanist nor an atheist, but people of very high ethical standards who promote values such as this should be afforded a space within Ireland's charities legislation.