Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy O’Brien, on bringing this Bill through the House. It is a very important Bill from the perspective of charities. It gives power to the regulator to oversee that charitable organisations are run on an efficient and above-board basis.

Over the years, we saw many charities which had fundraising with church-gate collections. Now we see less and less of that because there are fewer mass times and fewer people going to work. When you had collections at church gates or whatever, you knew who was involved in those charitable organisations to a large degree. As Senator Murphy said, there are more than 11,000 charitable organisations in the country so we do not know who the organisations are. The public needs to have confidence in them. They need confidence to contribute and that the charitable organisations are carrying out what they are supposed to do. There is a great onus on the boards and trustees of those charitable organisations. As the Minister of State said, through this legislation the regulator will have power to oversee a lot of that. It is very welcome. It is very important for the public and for the organisations themselves.