On 25 July 2010 12:17, Oliver Moran wiki_ra@yahoo.ie wrote:
I did some investigation into the requirements for registration in Ireland last year. Andrew, you said you wouldn't be surprised if English and Irish law was very similar. From my investigation, the Friendly Societies Act 1896 may be a relevant avenue to go down. If so, the questions is really how much you have changed your law since then :-)
The relevant page on the Companies Registration Office page is for registration of a Friendly Society is: http://www.cro.ie/en/business-registration-friendly-society.aspx
If we were to go down the Friendly Society line, I have made a check-list of questions we would need to answer here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Ireland/Bylaws/Requirements_for_reg...
A straight-up company is another route. The relevent page for a company is: http://www.cro.ie/ena/business-registration-company.aspx
There is no such thing as a "charity" in Irish law. Charity status is instead merely an arrangement between a company and the tax man, from what I can tell.
There are likely other routes we could go but I think it would be better to get legal advice before making these decisions. Are there any solicitors on the list? If no, we might look to someone who give free legal aid in Ireland. Given our public good mission, they might be willing to help out. Does anyone have any experience with FLAC (http://www.flac.ie/)?
WMUK decided to become a company, rather than an association (the British equivalent of a Friendly Society), primarily because it provides more protection for the board members. I haven't researched the relevant Irish law, but I expect that the trustees of a Friendly Society are personally liable for its debts and for any wrongdoing by the society. The directors of a company (in the UK, anyway) have "limited liability", which means they are only personally liable under very restricted circumstances. There is usually more bureaucracy associated with companies, though. My advice would be to take the same route we did and become a company. It is a good idea to seek professional legal advice first, though. If you can't find free advice, I suggest you ask the Foundation for funds to pay for legal advice (they offered us such funds and I'm sure they would do the same for you).