The Charities Regulatory Authority (the ‘Charities Regulator’) was established in October 2014 pursuant to the Charities Act 2009. The Authority is the State organisation responsible for registering and regulating all of Ireland’s charities, with the mandate to promote good governance practice.
My Department has been assigned responsibility for the Charities Regulator. It is important to note however, that the Regulator is fully independent in the performance of its statutory functions, including the registration of charities.
There are currently approximately 170 active applications submitted to the Charities Regulator which are at various stages of the registration process.
Each application for registration must be carefully assessed by the Charities Regulator to ensure that the applicant meets the specific requirements set out in the Charities Act 2009. The Act does not permit the Charities Regulator to reject an incomplete application. This means that the Charities Regulator must make a substantive decision on whether or not an applicant can be entered in the Register of Charities (“the Register) in each case. This can lead to significant ongoing engagement by the Charities Regulator with applicants over what, in some cases, can be a protracted period of time in order to get their applications to a stage where a fair and robust decision can be made.
While the Regulator endeavours to complete the registration process for applicants as efficiently as possible, the overall application process takes time – typically around six months - and it can vary from case to case in terms of when a decision can be made on an application.
The Chief Executive of the Charities Regulator is the final decision maker in relation to the approval of applications to be registered in the Register of Charities. There is a specialist registration team within the organisation tasked with assessing applications and escalating them for final decision when they are complete. This team has two support officers (Clerical Officers), six case officers (Executive Officers), a Higher Executive Officer and an Assistant Principal.
