Minister of State Pat Carey has agreed to look at tightening up the law on the sale of Mass Cards from dubious sources. Speaking in the Dáil on the Committee Stage of the Charities Bill, Mr Carey said he was considering a number of measures, including a requirement that a charity selling Mass Cards print its registration number and contact numbers of other kinds on the back of the cards.
The minister revealed that the sale of Mass cards in shops had been raised with his Department “at a fairly senior level by some church authorities”.
Mr Carey was responding to opposition demands that the law be tightened against bogus charities.
Fine Gael TD Michael Ring claimed that in the case of some Mass cards being sold from retail outlets, the names of priests “who had been dead for years” had been used on them.
“In other cases writing was illegible and they were not able to discern who the priest was,” the Mayo deputy claimed.
“In another case somebody had paid €4 for a mass card, but the priest who signed it only received 12 cents” he said.
Mr Ring said people should be able to see the registration number and the name of a charity on any document and that those who give generously to charities “should know where their money goes”.
He said collections of clothes for Third World charities were similarly dubious with ‘flyers’ distributed to households giving no information on where donations were going.
“There is often no name of a charity, nor a charity number or even a telephone number on the flyer,” he said.
“Everybody hates to be ripped off and charitable donations should not be another facet of rip-off Ireland,” Mr Ring warned.
Mr Ring said it should be an offence to sell Mass cards or to take clothes for a charity on false pretences.
Labour TD Jack Wall backed Mr Ring’s demand for charities to give their details on documentation. He said some used clothes collectors took “the prime bags” and left the rest.
“Such activities make people suspicious and reluctant to donate to genuine charities,” he said.
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