Sir, – Further to "Law firm uses charities to cut tax for hedge funds" (August 27th), there is no doubt that the governance and regulation of charities need a little more than light-touch regulation.
Following disquiet caused by a Today Tonight programme I produced on unregulated charities in 1988, the then government set up a committee to report on charities, chaired by Mr Justice Declan Costello. The Report of the Committee on Fundraising Activities for Charitable and Other Purposes was presented to the minister for justice and communications in October 1989. It took another 20 years before appropriate legislation was passed in 2009. Unbelievably, it then took a further five years for its provisions to be activated by ministerial order. Since then only a few hundred charities have registered with the Charities Regulatory Board and the Minister has extended until April 2016 the time for many thousands of unregistered charities to sign up. When they do, it is not clear whether they will be required to be transparent about fundraising costs. Unless financial transparency is required of all, genuine charities may suffer. Perhaps it is time for Revenue to examine a sample group of those registered charities where hedge funds and similar not so good causes appear to be the real clients. – Yours, etc,
Dr CON BUSHE,
Dalkey, Co Dublin.