Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----is to have a general conversation about how we can improve matters in order to benefit disadvantaged communities, the arts and the music world and to deal with educational disadvantage. We plan to generate a not-for-profit sector which is transparent and regulated.

I take on board Senator O'Brien's point on the charities regulator. I will have a conversation with the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter. The charities sector was part of the Department responsible for community issues, but for some reason it ended up in the Department of Justice and Equality. I do not know how that happened in 2011, but we are working closely together with the Minister who has made some progress in the past year.

Training of fund-raising staff is part and parcel of what we are seeking to do. Many speakers have observed that the public must have confidence that fund-raising personnel are not doing it for personal gain but are fund-raising for an organisation and that the information on their identification document meets the statutory requirements we wish to put in place. That is the remit of the charities regulator and the charities legislation. It is important to have confidence in the system of fund-raising. We have established a diploma course for people who wish to train in fund-raising. Dublin City University is the principal provider of this course to train and improve fund-raisers in order to attract inward investment into organisations experiencing financial difficulties. As Senator Katherine Zappone said, it is a partnership between the citizen and the Government, including the not-for-profit sector. We are seeking to build on that partnership. The Minister for Finance has already implemented some of the fiscal recommendations made in the report. We will not get the extra €300 million unless we can make it an attractive proposition and compete with the US companies that have a greater incentive in their home country to give philanthropic donations. We need to level the playing pitch in this regard to encourage these companies to participate in Ireland

The company established for the purpose of developing the social innovation fund has been incorporated recently. The Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, will chair an interdepartmental group on how that project can be advanced. I acknowledge that the comparative data are required to show that what is being done stands up to scrutiny and in order that the contributions can be valued. Particularly with regard to finance, we need to reinforce the confidence of the general public and organisations generally in order that they know their donations are going to the desired beneficiaries.

Senator Denis Landy spoke about donations which were regular and consistent. We are hoping to develop this form of donation and it will mean a cultural change. It could be that the meaning of the word "philanthropy" has not been understood by the public. We may need to talk more about national giving rather than philanthropy. It is a word that conjures up the notion of exiles, as Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh has tried to describe it. That is not our intention-----