16/01/2014

Sinn Féin Move On Revised Charities Act

Sinn Féin have moved to fully enact the Charities Act 2009, which was put on hold in 2011 due to the cost of establishing a regulator.

Speaking about the party's Charities (Amendment) Bill 2014, Justice and Equality spokesperson Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said: "The Charities Act 2009 was enacted to reform the law relating to charities in order to ensure greater accountability and protect against abuse of charitable status and fraud. It aimed to enhance public trust and confidence in charities and to increase transparency in the Irish community and voluntary sector.

"The recent scandalous revelations about the pay and bonuses of senior executives in some charities throws into sharp focus, again, the need for regulation within the charity sector.

"Those scandals unfortunately impacted on the fundraising campaigns of charities who had done no wrong whatsoever ahead of the Christmas period. This in turn has had a knock on effect some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

"Minister Shatter in November 2011 announced that he was putting on hold the full implementation of the Charities Act due to the costs associated with setting up the regulator. This is not good enough.

"Our bill is calling for all provisions of the bill to be fully enacted by 31 May 2014."

(MH/JP)

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