Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There are a large number of charities and many of them are performing functions that really are public services. Many if not all of them rely on the ability to fundraise. Very essential services are being provided. It is important to get a balance in all of this. I would be generally supportive of the Bill but we must know exactly, but we cannot have unintended consequences such as ending up with reduced services, which are essentially public services, because of an inadequacy of funding if charities are precluded from fundraising due to legislative provisions. Putting safeguards in is utterly appropriate, but I have concerns that we will end up with very viable charities becoming non-viable. Those charities are delivering public services. I do not believe some of those charities should have to provide public services but they are. While that is the case, we must be very careful about this particular aspect.

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