Immediate release:
CALL ON MEMBERS OF SEANAD ÉIREANN TO SUPPORT CHARITY REGULATION
Dublin, 19 September: The Wheel, a national body representing over 900 charities, today called on the members of Seanad Éireann to support the establishment of a Charity Regular and the full implementation of the Charities Act 2009.
The call comes as 12 Labour senators prepare to launch a motion in private members time later today, aimed at applying pressure on the Justice Minister Alan Shatter to regulate Ireland’s 11,700 charities.
Mr Shatter said earlier that is not possible to regulate charities under legislation at this time, "given the likely scale of the financial and staffing resources implied”.
Calling for the full commencement of the Charities Act 2009, The Wheel’s Director of Advocacy, Ivan Cooper said: “The proposed Charities Regulator and commencing the full provisions of the Charities Act 2009 (including the Register of Charities) would fully regulate charities and would bring a high level of accountability and transparency to all the work of charities – including their advocacy work.”
From 2002 through to 2009 The Wheel was at the forefront of the nonprofit sector’s work to secure appropriate charities legislation for Ireland. The organisation engaged with its members, departmental officials and the political system over that time to ensure that the Charities Act would provide maximum transparency and accountability to the public. It also made several submissions over those years and published a guide on the Charities Act 2009.
Mr Cooper added: “Since the Act passed into law in February 2009, The Wheel has engaged with government to ensure the Act’s commencement as a matter of great importance to Irish public life. We call on the members of Seanad Éireann to support our work in this regard - both in the public and the non-profit sector’s interest.”
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NOTE TO EDITOR
Ivan Cooper, Director of Advocacy at The Wheel is now available for interview. Please contact Gert Ackermann on Tel: (01) 454 87287 or 086 176 9287.
ABOUT THE WHEEL
The Wheel is a national organisation that represents and supports community, voluntary and charitable organisations in Ireland. Founded in 1999, we currently have over 900 members across Ireland, reflecting the enormous scope and scale of this vibrant and diverse sector. The Wheel exists to help change people’s lives for the better. We do this by helping community and voluntary organisations get things done, more efficiently and more effectively. As an independently governed, membership-based organisation, we represent our members' shared interests to Government and other decision-makers, and we promote better understanding of the vital work they do for people in Ireland.
Key Facts about Ireland’s Community, Voluntary and Charity Sector.
- In 2009 there were at least 11,700 organisations employing over 100,000 people, involving over 560,000 volunteers in their work and managing turnover of €5.75bn. (Inkex)
- If we bear in mind that Irish GNP in 2010 was about €130 Bn, then the community and voluntary sector accounts for over 3.25% of national income. (Inkex)
- Nonprofits are the means of delivering a wide variety of public services – in health, social services, education, emergency relief and elsewhere – and they create an untold quantum of public good – in culture, recreation, social justice, civil and human rights.
- Nonprofits are perhaps the principal source of social capital in our society, with more than 560,000 people engaged as volunteers, and more than 50,000 people engaged in their governance on boards of directors. (Inkex).
Source: Inkex: Irish Nonprofits: What Do We Know?. A report by Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange, January 2012
