Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 458: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will regulate the hours that leaflet drops by businesses and stickers and bags seeking donations by charities can be delivered to households; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that such activities are causing fear and annoyance to residents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3307/08]

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have no statutory power to regulate the hours that leaflets and other items may be delivered to households. However, in a broader sense, I am well aware that the common practice of persons and organisations collecting goods, and particularly clothing, door-to-door, purportedly for charitable purposes, is an issue of concern both to genuine charities and to the general public.

Measures in the Charities Bill 2007, which recently completed Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann, will lead to increased transparency in relation to the operations of charities and should help to ensure that the public will be able to make more informed decisions about the organisations to which they choose to donate.

At the present time, the activities of persons and organisations purporting to collect goods for charitable purposes are unregulated. However, it will be mandatory under the Charities Bill for a charity wishing to operate in the State to register with the proposed Charities Regulatory Authority. It is envisaged that the register will be accessible to the general public on the Authority's website, thus enabling members of the public to easily check the charitable bona fides of a body operating here. The Bill also provides that charities on the register must state they are so registered in all public documents or such other publications as may be prescribed by regulations and that a person who holds out a body as being a charity, but is not registered here, will be guilty of an offence punishable, on conviction, by a fine and/or imprisonment. It will be within the remit of the Regulatory Authority to take steps to make the public aware of how to determine the veracity of door-to-door collectors.

I am also taking advice as to whether additional legal provisions are required in the Charities Bill to restrict the practice of non-charitable organisations holding themselves out as charitable organisations and will introduce such further provisions at the Report Stage of the Bill, if necessary.