Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and those in the Visitors Gallery. I also commend my colleagues, Senators Higgins and Whelan, for proposing this motion, which has been soundly supported by all Members of the House.

In an ideal world, charities would not exist but in almost every town and village throughout the world, there is a small charity set up for the purpose of helping people who are less well off. As well as that, there is a social side to it for those communities who get together and do something for themselves. I recently read that in the last 30 years the London Marathon had raised over £500 million and possibly more, given that some funds were not recorded. There is a two-way street there whereby people get involved in walking or jogging and participate in a community event while also delivering funding to various charitable organisations. In an ideal world, as I have said, none of us would need to help charities, but we do. When people donate to charities they feel it is a more direct way of helping than, for example, paying more tax in the community and that tax being directed to various charities.

People involved in charities know how difficult it is to raise money in a recession. As a director of the Simon Community in the north west, I learned how difficult it is to set up a charity. I did not realise how long it took for a charity like Simon to set up in an area, between regulation, setting up a company and so forth. Any money collected in a charity is well spent. There are so many small charities throughout the country that are running very hard to stand still. In these difficult economic times they are suffering much more than others.

Senator Noone said she was not in favour of the chuggers but we are all chuggers in this House. We could be called political chuggers. I have no problem with the chuggers on the street because when I look at them I think they could be my son or my daughter and they are working hard to collect money, mostly through the setting up of direct debits. Generally they are friendly and they are doing a job that nobody else wants to do. If they get paid for it, good luck to them because if they convince somebody to set up a direct debit, the money is much easier to collect than going to a donor's door every year. I would not criticise chuggers. Sometimes they might get in my way but what they do is no worse than knocking on doors during a general election campaign. In fact, we would be more badly received than the chuggers. Chuggers should keep going and work as hard as they can. It is not an easy job to collect money or to look for votes.

Lately I have noticed - I am sure others have too - charity organisations or sports clubs with collection buckets at traffic lights or roundabouts. I have no problem with that because those involved are doing it in good faith. However, in other countries, the box or receptacle for the money is actually a sealed pouch where the money goes in and is locked and can only be opened by the charities. It is a massive temptation to have buckets of money floating around anywhere, whether coins or notes. I tend to empty my pockets of change into the buckets and am delighted to do it. However, I am wary of the temptation that such collection methods represent. It was in France or Germany that I saw the sealed receptacles which would make people feel more secure about giving money. I am sure the charities also felt more secure because they knew that the people donating their money could be assured that their money was going directly to the charity. That option should be considered here.

The thrust of the motion is that we must get more regulation. Senator Whelan referred to the fact that there are 7,000 registered charities in this country, which is a very large number. I do not know how many are operating profitably.

We do not want to reach a point at which charities are funding themselves and the money does not leave the charities as they may be trying to secure jobs that have been set up. All the money collected should go to the cause specified on the box or ticket. At the same time, there is a realistic expectation that it costs money to collect efficiently. The more efficient the organisations that run charities the better, but we have to play our part in regulation. That the Act has not been implemented for budgetary reasons is not a good excuse and the charities we represent today are waiting for us to do the job. I look forward to hearing the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, say when it will be implemented because it is important for all charities. As we are all in the political chugging game, I have no problem with charitable chuggers. Good luck to them.