Charities (Amendment) Act 2024, the Next Set of Changes Are Here
The Minister has signed the second commencement order for the Charities (Amendment) Act 2024.
It brings in further changes to charity law that all charities, and charity trustees especially, need to familiarise themselves with. Here are the main changes you need to know.
The Charities (Amendment) Act 2024 contains some important revisions and updates to the Charities Act 2009 that will be introduced on a phased basis. The changes require a ministerial order to commence. The first commencement order was effective from 27 January 2025. This explainer covers the main changes included in the second commencement order, which are in effect from 30 October 2026. A further update will be provided when subsequent ministerial orders are signed.
Charity trustees
Several changes have been introduced to clarify the legal duties of charity trustees. There are changes also to the number of trustees that a charity must have, and who can – and cannot – be a charity trustee, as well as the information charities need to provide on new trustees. These are covered in the easy explainer on our website.
The Charities Regulator has also updated the guidance Being a charity trustee to help trustees understand what is expected of them.
When to notify the Charities Regulator
Charities have always been required to notify us when certain things happen. The latest order has made some changes to the requirements.
RCN number
Your Registered Charity Number (RCN) is the unique number given to your charity when it was entered on the Register of Charities. It shows that your organisation is a registered charity in Ireland. It also helps donors, funders and members of the public find your charity on the Register and check its details. This number must now be included on public facing materials. This is not new, but there are some additional requirements. We have some new guidance on our website to explain them, and the steps charities should take.
Charity constitutions
Each charity’s constitution can now be published as part of the record on the public Register of Charities. We will introduce this feature as part of the new look Register, which will be launched in late 2027/ early 2028 with our new digital platform.
More information will follow on the steps that you may need to take, but for now make sure you have a copy of, and are familiar, with your constitution.
Financial regulations
Additionally, changes have been introduced to sections of the Charities Act dealing with the preparation of financial statements. However, and this is important to note, the Minister must introduce financial regulations for these sections to take effect. We don’t have a timeframe on the regulations at present. However, there will be a lead in time to give charities time to comply. In the meantime, we encourage organisations to review their categorisation which you’ll find in our easy explainer.
The changes, while not unexpected, will require action for many charities. Our easy explainer will help charities identify any steps that their charity needs to take. The next step then is to plan how you are going to implement them. We understand that some changes may take a little time to implement and this will be reflected in our regulatory approach.
https://www.charitiesregulator.ie/en/information-for-charities/charities-amendment-act-2024