Northern Ireland charity regulator was constrained by flawed legislation
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Dr Oonagh Breen
Northern Ireland’s charity regulator was constrained from its earliest days as a result of flawed legislation, an independent review has concluded.
Professor Oonagh Breen of UCD Sutherland School of Law was appointed last January to chair an independent review of charity regulation in Northern Ireland.
The review report finds that the Charity Commission NI was based on flawed legislation and, as a result, the sequencing and focusing of its work was disproportionately focused on compliance, at the cost of completion of the charity register.
It identifies a need for a “reset” of the Commission’s communications and engagement approach to recalibrate its culture and relationship with the charity sector.
The report makes 93 recommendations, all of which the independent review panel see as important and includes, as a matter of priority, the completion of the charity register.
In addition, the report recommends changes to accounting and reporting requirements, and the commencement of the provisions for charitable incorporated organisations in Northern Ireland.
Professor Breen was supported on the independent review panel by Noel Lavery, former permanent secretary of a number of NICS departments and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, and the Reverend Dr Lesley Carroll, the NI prisoner ombudsman and former deputy chief commissioner of the Equality Commission.
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