Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are related and may be discussed together.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 1:

In page 17, line 28, to delete “shall, on the specified date, remove” and substitute “shall remove”.

I am delighted to be here today to commence Report and Final Stages of the Charities (Amendment) Bill 2023 with officials from my Department. The purpose of the Bill is to strengthen the charity sector, ensuring greater transparency, clarity and fairness, which will serve to enhance public confidence in the sector. The charity sector plays a crucial role in connecting the wider public with opportunities to support and improve our communities and society at large. Registered charities play an integral role in the provision of a wide range of services to our communities. Throughout this legislative process, including on Committee Stage, my officials and I have actively engaged with the charities sector to listen and to take on board the observations of a wide number of stakeholders. In acknowledgement of this engagement, I now wish to introduce a number of amendments which will ensure the Bill is fit for purpose.

Amendment No. 1 updates section 11 of the published Bill, which relates to section 40 charities which are deemed to no longer be registered. The published Bill includes a provision in section 11 which requires the Charities Regulator to apply to the High Court for a declaration in order to remove a charity from the register where it is informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the charity is no longer entitled to hold the CHY number. This process could potentially take up to two years. The current process undertaken by the Charities Regulator in this regard is an automatic removal of the charity from the register. The amendment provides that this process will remain in place as seeking a declaration from the High Court would place an unnecessary delay on a procedure which should remain automatic.

Amendment No. 2 will remove the requirement for the Charities Regulator to seek a declaration from the High Court where the Revenue Commissioners have confirmed that the charity is no longer entitled to hold the CHY number. As a consequence, amendment No. 2 updates section 12 of the published Bill, which relates to removal notices in these cases. This amendment clarifies that where the Charities Regulator removes a charity from the register where the charity is no longer entitled to hold the CHY number, the regulator will not be required to serve a removal notice on the charity. The removal of these section 40 organisations by Revenue follows a defined process by Revenue which includes an appeals process. In many cases, these organisations are dormant and their removal serves to update the register. It is open to any organisation whose CHY number has been removed by Revenue to apply to the Charities Regulator for charity status in the normal manner.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 2:

In page 19, line 16, to delete “subsection (9)” and substitute “subsection (1A) or (9)”.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Amendments Nos. 3 to 11, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 3:

In page 33, line 23, to delete “88D” and substitute “88C”.

I want to speak to amendment No. 9 first as the remaining amendments are technical in nature. Amendment No. 9 updates Part 6A of the Bill, which relates to the entering of agreements and making of appointments by a charitable organisation. The provisions in Part 6A of the published Bill place the requirement on charities to seek the approval of the Charities Regulator to enter agreements or make appointments with relevant persons. As highlighted on Committee Stage, there was ongoing consideration from an operational and feasibility perspective in respect of the approvals process and its impact on both the regulator and the day-to-day operations of the sector. Following due consideration, it is deemed appropriate to remove the requirement for charities to seek the approval of the Charities Regulator to enter agreements or make appointments under Part 6A. The wording of subsection (5) included in amendment No. 9 will instead require charitable organisations to provide a declaration in respect of agreements entered into and appointments made as part of their annual reporting requirements to the Charities Regulator. Trustees of a charity will still need to satisfy themselves that any such agreement or appointment is in the best interest of the charity and is not in contravention of the organisation's constitution.

I am also proposing to retain a number of important provisions that previously sat in section 88D which will now sit as part of section 88C. The provisions in paragraphs (6), (8), (9) and (10) in amendment No. 9 were previously included under section 88D of the published Bill. With the reconfiguration of Part 6A, these provisions will now sit in section 88C instead. Charity trustees who contravene the provisions of or any regulations made under Part 6A will continue to be guilty of an offence. Paragraph (7) allows for regulations to be made under Part 6A with respect to the basis on which appointments can be made, with the information to be included in the declaration to the Charities Regulator and the information to be recorded as part of the register which charities will be required to keep.

Paragraph (12) clarifies that education bodies and public bodies will be exempt from the requirements to submit an annual declaration and from the requirement to keep a register of agreements and appointments. This reflects the same level of exemption and oversight provided to education and public bodies as approved by Cabinet and contained in the published Bill.

Amendment No. 3 is a technical amendment and of a drafting nature. This amendment updates section 30 of the published Bill and refers to the application of intermediate sanctions in respect of contraventions of the provisions which were previously included in section 88D of Part 6A. The related provisions are now included under section 88C which has necessitated this amendment.

Amendment No. 4 updates the title of Part 6A of the published Bill. The title of this section of the published Bill is "Approval of Certain Agreements and Appointments". As the requirement to seek the approval of the regulator for such agreements and appointments has been removed from the Bill, the title of Part 6A has been updated to reflect this change.

Amendment No. 5 deletes the definition for relevant date in section 34 of the published Bill under section 88A of Part 6A. This definition was included in reference to the process for seeking the approval of the regulator to enter into agreements and make appointments under Part 6A. As the requirement to seek approval has been removed from the provisions in Part 6A, the term "relevant date" is no longer required and can be deleted.

Amendment No. 6 deletes the wording of requirements prescribed under section 88D(6)(b) and substitutes "regulations made under subsection (7)(a)". The updated reference to subsection (7)(a) is a technical amendment and of a drafting nature.

Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 are both technical amendments and of a drafting nature and are required due to the reconfiguration of section 88C.

Amendments Nos. 10 and 11 are technical amendments and of a drafting nature. Amendment No. 10 provides for the deletion of section 88D, which relates to the approval of agreements and appointments. However, as highlighted previously, a number of provisions under section 88D are being retained and will instead sit as part of section 88C.

Amendment No. 11 provides for the deletion of section 88E, which relates to the appeal mechanism to the District Court against the decision of the Charities Regulator. As it is proposed to remove the requirement to seek approval from the Charities Regulator, this appeal mechanism is no longer required and this allows for section 88E to be deleted in its entirety.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 4:

In page 35, to delete line 21 and substitute “Agreements and Appointments”.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 5:

In page 36, to delete lines 11 and 12.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 6:

In page 37, to delete line 12 and substitute “regulations made under subsection (7)(a).”.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 7:

In page 37, line 15, after “constitution,” to insert “and”.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 8:

In page 37, line 21, to delete “organisation, and” and substitute “organisation.”.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 9:

In page 37, to delete lines 22 to 32 and substitute the following: “(5) Where a charitable organisation has entered into an agreement or made an appointment in a financial year, the annual return (within the meaning of section 52) shall include a declaration that the charity trustees of the charitable organisation referred to in subsection (4)(b) are satisfied that the agreement or appointment is in the best interests of the charitable organisation.

(6) Each charitable organisation shall keep a register of agreements and appointments.

(7) The Minister may prescribe—

(a) the circumstances in which a charitable organisation (other than a charitable organisation referred to in subsection (12)) may make an appointment having regard to the requirements of different charitable organisations,

(b) the particulars to be included in a declaration under subsection (5), and

(c) the particulars to be included in a register under subsection (6).

(8) Where in relation to an agreement or appointment there has been a contravention of this Part, the agreement or appointment, as the case may be, shall be null and void.

(9) Subsection (8) shall not operate to prevent a charitable organisation or a relevant person that has acted in good faith from recovering damages in respect of any loss incurred by it, him or her by virtue of an agreement or appointment to which that subsection applies.

(10) A person who, in purported compliance with this section or regulations made under this section, knowingly or recklessly provides information or a particular to the Authority that is false or misleading in a material respect, or who believes any such information or particular when provided by him or her, in purported compliance with this section, not to be true, shall be guilty of an offence.

(11) The charity trustees of a charitable organisation in respect of which there is a contravention of this Part or regulations made under this section shall each be guilty of an offence.

(12) Subsections (5), (6) and (10) do not apply to an education body or a public body.”.”.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 10:

In page 37, to delete lines 33 to 40, to delete page 38, and in page 39, to delete lines 1 to 7.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 11:

In page 39, to delete lines 8 to 22.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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In closing I want to take the opportunity to record my thanks to my fellow Deputies, the Charities Regulator and all the stakeholders who have engaged with me and my officials and who have made very valuable submissions and observations as part of this wider, deliberative process. I also acknowledge the valuable assistance of officials in the Bills Office.

I reiterate that the purpose of this Bill is to strengthen the charities sector, ensuring greater transparency, clarity and fairness, which will serve to enhance public confidence in the sector and will consolidate the existing legal framework for the Charities Regulator to conduct its statutory functions. I look forward to bringing the Bill to the Seanad.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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Sinn Féin will be supporting this Bill. The charities sector plays a very important role in the provision of vital health, education, addiction and homeless services, community development and many other services in Ireland. The Bill has gone through very thorough pre-legislative scrutiny and many of the issues that were raised have been addressed. I thank groups such as The Wheel, the Charities Institute, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and fellow TDs and the Minister who engaged throughout the process. I was happy to be able to raise some of the concerns and issues in relation to the Bill.

Some of the issues we raised with the Minister, which were addressed, include that charities have to produce accounts at the point at which they have to get their accounts audited. A "significant event" was something we discussed at length, and that has been addressed. The advancement of human rights, which is a really important issue, has been included as a valid charitable purpose. This is very welcome. We strongly argued that advocacy is a very important aspect of the work of many of the organisations working on the ground, dealing with many of the difficulties and struggles in our communities. They also need to advocate on a political level to try to ensure that those difficulties and struggles are eliminated or reduced. I welcome the Bill and the engagement by the Minister throughout the process.