John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Many of the charitable purposes in the Bill are very closely linked with human rights. My understanding is that no charity has been granted a CHY number by Revenue on the basis that it is a human rights organisation per se.

The Bill does not change the charitable purposes that have developed in common law, nor is it within its gift to do so. As I made clear to the House, it is not the intention of the Bill to widen or to narrow the range of purposes that have become accepted as charitable over time.

The Bill before the House is substantially different in many respects from the general scheme that was originally published. Much of what was contained in the general scheme was based on examples from other common law jurisdictions. Much of the legal guidance received during the drafting reflected that it is not always possible to transfer into Irish law what was in other legislative codes.

As regards human rights and social justice, during the drafting of the Bill and the detailed consultations that were undertaken at that time with other Departments and statutory agencies it emerged that the advancement of human rights and social justice was not a charitable purpose in Ireland. That is why it was removed. As stated on many occasions, the purpose of the Bill is to maintain the status quo and regulate the current system.