Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, other EU countries. There are tables in it, but I take your point. We will ask for that. That is agreed.

No. 1246 B is from Mr. Pádraig Dalton, director general, Central Statistics Office, dated 18 May 2022, and provides information requested by the committee regarding CSO data sources for the non-profit sector. We requested this information in the context of the termination of the Benefacts database, which we discussed with officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last week. It is clear from the CSO's response that the data it received free of charge from Benefacts were a valuable data source for the CSO across a range of areas and "helped the CSO fulfil important statistical reporting required under EU legislation". In the absence of the Benefacts data set, the CSO states that it will need investment across a number of areas and even then, under EU statistical legislation, it would only be in a position to make aggregate data available. Unlike Benefacts, the public would not be able to access information on individual non-profit institutes. It is proposed to note and publish this correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. With members’ agreement, we will also request sight of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's value-for-money review or business case of the Benefacts database, which the Department has stated was a factor in its decision to discontinue funding the database. Is that agreed? Agreed.

On this matter, as I recall the previous discussion about this, it was less than €1 million per year. I think it was €0.9 million for the last year of its operation. It appears to be a relatively small amount of money. I note the correspondence and what the CSO said about it regarding the benefit it was to that office. It seems that the reason for closing this down and terminating the arrangement that existed has had major consequences. The amount of money being saved is very little. As I recall as well, the area it was looking at, the voluntary sector, has a spend of €14 billion. Was it €14 billion of a spend in total?