Charities Regulation

Posted by Kathryn Maybury on Monday, 15 June 2015

A post by Kathryn Maybury | Managing Director | KOMSEC Limited | Company Secretarial Services | Corporate Governance | Compliance |

Tel: +353 (0) 1 2107595 Email: kmaybury@komsec.ie

 

Six months after the long awaited setting up of the CRA it was a disappointing reality that of the estimated 4,000 Charities falling under S.39 of the Charities Act only 200 had applied for registration.

Such a stark reality left the Minister for Justice and Equality with few options.  The Charities Act enabled Minister Fitzgerald to extend the deadline period for Charities (in existence prior to 16.10.2014) an option she availed of when in April 2015 she announced an extension to 16th April 2016.

When announcing the extension the Minister said "it is important that all charities operating here meeting their obligation to register on the new public Register of Charities.  This Register is intended to provide much needed additional transparency about our charity sector.  I ahve taken the decision to extend the registraiton period in consultation with the Charities Regulatory Authority.  I encourage any charity that was established before last October and that has not yet begun the registration process to do so now."

Quite what options the Minister or Charities Regulator will have or, perhaps more importantly be willing to employ, should such a derisory level of applications continues is impossible to judge at this time.  For now, it appears that around 3,800 Charities falling under S.39 of the Act are unlikely to alter their laissez faire approach to this basic and essential piece of legislation.

An extremely disappointing outcome to date!.

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