Ms Deirdre Mortell:

Rethink Ireland was created by the Government to stimulate philanthropy coming out of the recession. We bring together philanthropy raised from multinational and indigenous companies, private donors, families and anywhere else we can think of, together with Government funds, to tackle Ireland's critical social and environmental issues. We do that through providing grants and, critically, capacity-building supports to non-profit organisations, some of which are charities and some of which are not, at grassroots level around Ireland where they have developed an innovation that tackles a critical social or environmental issue. We have raised €85 million in the last seven years to do that. We have backed over 300 projects to grow in scale across the country. We have a significant track record as Rethink Ireland in public-private partnerships.

We are also a trusted partner of the Government, having been established by it - although we are independent. We are a non-profit and a charity ourselves. Our Government funding tends to come - through the Dormant Accounts Fund - from the Department of Rural and Community Development, with which we work very closely. We also work with other Departments, however. Really, we see our role as supporting Departments to solve their policy implementation challenges where backing innovation at grassroots level can help do so.

In 2021, the European Investment Bank, EIB, advisory hub agreed to fund a social outcomes contract feasibility study with the Government. The client is the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, with Rethink Ireland facilitating this. The main purpose is to assess the potential for the take-up of social outcomes contracts in Ireland. It is divided into two phases. Phase 1 is complete, which is an overview and assessment, and phase 2 is just about to start, which is an outline for a specific pilot project, which is why we are here to talk to the committee today. We can learn so much from other countries. What I mean by that is we do not have to invent this wheel. As an example, there have been 227 social outcomes contracts in the world that have raised more than €500 million. We are currently finalising that pilot. We know there is limited public-private collaboration in this country and this has the potential to unleash it.

Most importantly, what can we do? We have experience in Rethink Ireland in supporting social innovation in sports. We are a partner on the feasibility study and a trusted partner of both Government and philanthropy. The kinds of outcomes we can look forward to are improved health and wellness physically, improved self-image and confidence emotionally, and participation, friendships and community and civic engagement in terms of social outcomes, all of which we need to see much more. If we keep doing the same things, we are going to get the same results. This is an opportunity to break out and try something different based on international learning and the capacity we have across these organisations in this country.