Posted by Charities/NGO’s provide vital services but we must request that disorganisation and too many charities for the one purpose can be using funds and working against each other. This sector needs an overhaul.
34,331 organisations
Ireland’s nonprofit sector has 34,331 organisations. About 10,225 nonprofits are incorporated as companies, 3,965 are primary or secondary schools, 731 more are incorporated as friendly societies, cooperatives, industrial societies, political parties or charter bodies. Direct funding is paid from the Government, and this is a conflict of interests and lack of services which should be provided by the State and financially audited. There are too many scandals and charities where money is not spent appropriately.
Taken from Law Society Gazette – 1/2/21
Too many charities rush to appoint expensive bosses, says regulator
Too many Irish charities rush to appoint an expensively-paid chief executive before they have even done any fundraising, Charities Regulator Helen Martin told a Bar Council webinar last week.
“Not every charity requires a CEO and this is something we come across a lot – applications coming in from charities that haven’t even started their activities and they are already talking about paying the CEO €150,000 a year, and they haven’t even raised a penny,” she said.
What happened to Peter McVerry’s trust?
Thankfully the crisis in the Peter McVerry Trust was resolved without any disruption to people using their services. But serious questions remain over what the Minister for Housing and his Department knew about the funding crisis in the homeless services sector.19 Jun 2024
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Extracts from DFI
Budget 2025: Urgent Call for Government to Invest in Charity Governance and Maximise Impact
Charities Institute Ireland urge the government to invest in governance for stronger capacity, better systems, and lasting impact through Budget 2025 support.
Objective: Building capacity for the future
Given the enormity and urgency of the issues that society faces today, we call on the Government in our Budget 2025 submission to invest in charity governance, in the knowledge that increased capacity and better systems means more people helped, more communities supported, more challenges met.
Many charities struggle to build the organisational capacity and scale necessary to really tackle the big social challenges. This is not surprising, given that donors and funders want to support programmes, but not the organisations that deliver these programmes. This must change; simply providing programmes will not deliver lasting results. Great programmes need great organisations behind them. Our submission calls for all public funding agreements to cover governance costs and to establish a €5m fund for audited charities to recover governance and compliance costs.
By investing, the government’s policy to develop Philanthropy will be more effectively achieved. Philanthropic donors can partner with confidence with resilient organisations to ensure that funds are used where they have maximum impact, quickly and efficiently delivering support to the people and places most in need.
The contribution that Charities make to Ireland’s society and economy is often overlooked because, unlike other sectors, no meaningful research or data is collected to track its importance and validate its contribution. And the sector matters. In a recent Charities Regulators report, it was estimated that charities employ over 280,000 people (based on 2021 Annual Report data). With service demand and employment growth, this figure is now closer 300,000, With total employment standing at 2.71 million as at Q1, 2024, charities employ 11.1%, or almost 1 in every 9 workers. We’re calling for more investment in real-time data to measure the sector’s true economic and societal value.
Download – Budget 2025
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DISABILITY FEDERATION OF IRELAND
September 9 2024
Image is Mia Eusores from CRC Ongar, Gary Somers from CRC Ongar, Theresa Sheeky from BCIL, Dympna Minaguchi from Mullingar, Simone McWeeney from CRC Ongar, DFI CEO Elaine Teague, Daniel Quinn from CRC Ongar, Geraldine Rooney from BCIL, and Sylvie Uwodukeshinema from CRC Ongar.
Press Release – 9th September 2024 – Immediate
The experience of people with disabilities in Ireland continues to be one of financial precarity and higher risk of social exclusion. The Disability Federation of Ireland, in their Pre-budget Submission 2025, highlights how last year 16.5% of people unable to work due to long-standing health problem (disability) lived in consistent poverty, 4.5 times higher than the national average of 3.6%. Ongoing issues also persist in the availability of health and social services, in the provision of suitable housing for people with disabilities, and with community inclusion and access.
With less than a month to Budget 2025, DFI is calling on the Government to deliver on its commitment to disabled people outlined in the Programme for Government that they “are now serious about making a difference – a difference that will make things better.”
DFI CEO Elaine Teague said: “Last year 44.7% of people unable to work due to long standing health difficulty (disability) experienced enforced deprivation, unable to afford basic essentials like heating, new clothes, or socialising with friends or family. Ireland is a wealthy country and it is a national shame that we are amongst the worst countries in the EU for the rates of poverty experienced by disabled people, and low levels of employment. We must address the structural barriers that prevent real and meaningful inclusion; including the significant extra cost of having a disability, the impact that has on individuals’ financial stability and the barriers it creates to employment. It’s time to bring in a Cost of Disability payment to address this.”
Budget 2025 is also an opportunity to address the sustainability of community supports which are critically important to enable independent living, supporting disabled people to live self-determined lives. Community and social disability supports and services, the majority of which are provided by the community and voluntary sector, are under continuous pressure; placing a significant risk on their continuity. DFI Director of Advocacy, Emer Begley states that DFI member organisations “Continue to struggle with ongoing issues of underfunding, which is further exacerbated by the absence of multi-annual planning, and a lack of pay parity for workers. This is directly impacting the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. It is imperative that Budget 2025 addresses these issues and ensures that people with disabilities can have security and ease of access to person-centred community supports.”
DFI’s pre-budget submission 2025 sets out a series of recommendations to address the poverty and exclusion experienced by people with disabilities. It calls for action in the following key areas:
- Sustainable health and social care services with funding provision to deliver the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026.
- Tackling poverty experienced by disabled people, the extra Cost of Disability and employment by introducing a recurring Cost of Disability payment of €2,600 a year, or €50 a week.
- Ensuring community inclusion and participation through the development of a new programme to create disability inclusive communities.
- Realising housing for all by providing funding to implement the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027.
You can read the full submission here.
Notes to editors:
Disabled people and their families are the human faces behind these numbers and statistics:
- Disabled people live with extra costs of €10,397 – €15,177 each year (factoring in recent inflation), which are not covered by existing social welfare provision. The annual basic income provided by Disability Allowance in 2024 is €12,064. (Indecon, 2021, Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator).
- Ireland ranks 22nd in the EU 27 for disability poverty, and lowest in the EU for its disability employment gap (Roadmap for Social Inclusion Progress Report, European Disability Forum 2023).
- One in two disabled people who are unable to work (44.7%) live in deprivation (CSO SILC, 2023).
- 1,228 people with disabilities under sixty-five are inappropriately living in nursing homes. (Nursing Home Support Scheme, November 2023)
- Between 2016-2020 the number of people on the housing list reduced by almost 33%. But the number of people with a disability basis of need reduced by just 12% over the same period. (Housing Agency, Analysis of Households with a Disability Basis of Need for Social Housing, 2016-2020, 2021)
- Just under one in five people who experienced a condition or difficulty (disability) to a great extent reported bad or very bad health in 2023, compared with just 1.7% of the general population. (Census 2022)
- In September 2023, approximately 15,000 children were waiting on initial contact from their Children’s Disability Network Team, with almost two thirds waiting over 12 months. (DCEDIY, Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026, 2023)
The DFI’s Pre-Budget Submission is available on /budget25
For media contact: Colm Scanlon, Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns Assistant, Disability Federation of Ireland, 01 425 0126 colmscanlon@disability-federation.ie
DFI’s Pre-Budget Submission 2025: No time to delay – Disability Rights in Budget 2025
In 2020, this government promised that “ever since Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we have signalled to those with a disability that we are now serious about making a difference – a difference that will make things better.” While progress is being made with the transfer of departmental disability functions in 2023 and a forthcoming National Disability Strategy, the experience of people with disabilities continues to be one of financial precarity and social exclusion. Our pre-budget submission sets out a series of actions to address these fundamental issues.
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Change is possible. Positive reform that addresses the structural barriers and lack of universal design in society, as well as income inadequacy, is urgently needed. Our government can make different choices and prioritise disability in Budget 2025.
Read our Pre-Budget Submission here.
Read the longer version of our Pre-Budget Submission 2025 for more detail on what we are asking.
Pre-Budget Submissions from DFI Member Organisations
Acquired Brain Injury Ireland
Acquired Brain Injury Ireland is seeking a €2m allocation in the 2025 budget and a commitment to:
- Fund a national brain injury case management service that will reach every person with a brain injury, regardless of where they live by providing an additional 20 posts
- Support young people with brain injuries to move out of nursing homes, through the ongoing implementation of the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s ‘Wasted Lives’ report
- Urgently prioritise funding for Section 39 organisations by instituting pay parity with the HSE and resolving the funding crisis facing the sector.
Click here to read their pre-Budget submission.
Alzheimer’s Society
The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (The ASI) is calling on Government to improve equity of access to dementia supports and services across Ireland.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Care Alliance Ireland
Care Alliance Ireland’s Pre-Budget Statement for Budget 2025 summarises three key priorities which, would continue to progress the development of services and supports for Ireland’s over 500,000 family carers.
- Priority 1: Funded Policy Development
- Priority 2: Funding of Services and Supports
- Priority 3: Addressing Poverty and Income Inequality
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Statement of Priorities
Click here to read their Statement of Priorities for Social Protection
Cheshire Ireland
In their Pre-Budget Submission, Cheshire Ireland ask that the Disability Services Action Plan be implemented, particularly the provisions on intensive care packages and residential care places. Additionally, they are calling for disability organisations to be supported through pay parity and multi-annual funding.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Debra Ireland
Debra Ireland’s Budget ask is to ring-fence €600,000 for EB home nursing care and invest a further €95,000 to ensure holistic integrated care in line with the vision of Sláintecare.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Family Carers Ireland
Family Carers Ireland are calling for a new social contract for care, with a range of proposals to support family carers in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
FASD Ireland
DFI’s newest member has issued a Pre-Budget Submission that advocates for continued investment in FASD Ireland, increased FASD research in an Irish context and awareness-raising of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) through a comprehensive awareness education programme aimed at students in secondary and tertiary education. They also call for the establishment of an Alcohol Related Harm Fund that will support those living with FASD and contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of the disorder.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Heart Foundation
The Irish Heart Foundation is calling on Government to prioritise initiatives that promote public health, patient wellbeing, and environmental sustainability.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Wheelchair Association
The Irish Wheelchair Association has launched its pre-budget submission calling on the government to make their last budget of the 33rd Dáil a positive legacy and not leave people with disabilities behind again.
Click here to read their submission.
Mental Health Reform
Together with their 85 members, Mental Health Reform are calling on the Government to prioritise funding for mental health in the upcoming budget.
The theme of their pre-budget campaign this year is “I am a Reason”. This is a continuation of last year’s theme. Through this campaign, MHR aim to highlight the many reasons why the Government should invest in mental health in Budget 2025. These include the importance of timely, high-quality mental health supports and the need for sustainable and multi-annual funding for the voluntary and community sector.
The MHR Pre-Budget submission will be available on 30 July following it’s launch.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland
Summary of MS Ireland’s key asks for Budget 2025:
- Sustainable funding for national physiotherapy services for people with Multiple Sclerosis, and other neurological conditions totalling €880,000 per annum or €94,000 per CHO.
- An increase of €627,000 in annual investment in the National MS Respite Centre.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Neurological Alliance of Ireland (NAI)
The Neurological Alliance of Ireland has submitted its Pre Budget Submission, on the theme of #rightplace calling for funding to begin to address the regional inequity in access to neurology and neurorehabilitation services. The Submission focuses on tackling regional inequity in access to neurological care. Recent Budgets have seen welcome investment in neurology and neurorehabilitation services, but more needs to be done to tackle the stark regional inequity, where access to neurological care is dependent on where you live.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Parkinson’s Ireland
Parkinson’s Ireland is calling on the government to address the increasing rate of Parkinson’s Disease, by increasing the funding it provides to Parkinson’s Ireland, and by investing further in neurological care services within the HSE.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Rehab Group
Rehab Group carried out 49 in-depth focus groups with more than 460 people who use their services across the country to develop their Budget asks. Their submission sets out the concerns of the people who use their services and their priorities for Budget 2025. It also outlines the funding challenges Rehab Group faces as one of the largest disability service providers in the country and calls for urgent action to address these.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission Summary
Vision Ireland
Vision Ireland’s Pre-Budget Submission highlights eight asks across government departments- Mental Health, Health, Social Protection, Revenue, Transport, Sector Reform.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Joint Pre-Budget Submissions with DFI and other groups/orgs
Home Care Coalition
The main ask for the Home Care Coalition in Budget 2025 is an increase of €327m in funding for home care provision. They are also calling for pay parity to address the recruitment and retention crisis for home support providers. They reiterate their primary aim of an adequately resourced, rights-based, and person-centred, statutory home care scheme with equality of access and availability to home support services across the country and the new Health Regions.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Oireachtas Disability Group (ODG)
The Oireachtas Disability Group, ODG, is comprised of Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs), organisations representing service providers and advocacy organisations (Including DFI). We work to advance the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) through our collaboration with Members of the Oireachtas.
We present here the urgent priorities for disabled people that are needed to make rights real in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Other relevant Pre-Budget Submissions
ALONE
ALONE’s Pre-Budget Submission for 2025 focuses on several key areas to support older people in Ireland, including an increase in the state pension and an action plan to combat loneliness among older people. These measures aim to address the financial, social, and health challenges faced by older people, ensuring they can live independently and with dignity.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Disability Matters Joint Oireachtas Committee
The Committee’s Pre-Budget Submission reiterates its work on reform and equity through investment in initiatives that will achieve the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Among its recommendations are adoption of universal design for products, services, ICT, and buildings, implement an early intervention model for Children’s Disability Services, sustainable and holistic funding for disability service providers, and a framework for the statutory provision of personal assistance services.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland is a network of almost 160 local, regional and national anti-poverty organisations and individuals. Their submission calls for measures which contribute toward Ireland meeting its anti-poverty commitments in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth have issued a Pre-Budget Submission that calls for action to align Ireland with its climate obligations through significant reforms of several sectors including energy poverty. They propose a comprehensive retrofitting scheme to address energy inefficiency in housing, while also tackling fossil fuel dependence, high energy costs and inadequate income as structural causes of energy poverty.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Inclusion Ireland
Inclusion Ireland are calling for political leaders to stand up for children with a specific budget to develop a six-year inclusive education strategic plan.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Independent Living Movement Ireland
Independent Living Movement Ireland call for investment in key policy areas identified by their members to progressively implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions note in their pre-Budget Submission that a longer-term strategic and structural approach should determine budgetary policy, the approach to the provision of public services, to welfare policy and to the sustainability of the Irish tax base. Consequently, they propose several measures including greater labour market participation for all and benchmarking of social welfare rates to ensure economic and social stability.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
National Disability Services Association (NDSA)
The National Disability Services (NDS) has released its Pre-Budget Submission for 2025, focusing on several key areas to improve the lives of people with disabilities, such as Funding for Disability Services, Employment Support and Health and Wellbeing. These budget priorities aim to address the systemic barriers that people with disabilities face and to promote a more inclusive society.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
National Women’s Council of Ireland
In their Pre-Budget Submission 2025, the National Women’s Council of Ireland has identified several critical areas where structural investment and reform are needed, and advocate for these recommendations as a crucial step towards gender equality in Ireland
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Social Justice Ireland
Social Justice Ireland calls for Budget 2025 to focus on building resilience across our society and economy through investment in our infrastructure, services and people. It also proposes that Budget 2025 be guided by one core principle: that the measures adopted prioritise the protection of the most vulnerable groups in Irish society.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul submission highlights several key areas of concern and makes recommendations that will have the biggest impact on people’s lives in addressing poverty and social exclusion in Ireland.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
The Wheel
The overarching focus of The Wheel’s submission is on the measures that create a sustainable and thriving sector. It also includes analysis of socioeconomic conditions in which the sector operates and specific proposals that address the challenges faced by organisations and the people they serve.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Note: Please do check back as our page will be updated right up to and after Budget 2025 including pre-budget submissions and post-Budget reactions.
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Budget 2025
Disability Federation of Ireland
Fumbally Court, Fumbally Lane,
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