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

There are a few issues there to point out to the Department. Between VRT foregone and the direct grant, it is costing €300 million. As Deputy Carthy said, in a year or two €1 billion might have been spent. The scheme needs to be refined because it is clear it is not achieving its original objective. Previous information the Department supplied indicated there is now a cap on the value of a new vehicle of €60,000. A vehicle costing more than €60,000 does not qualify for the grant, which helps. As I recall it, when the Secretary General appeared before the committee, I put it to him that it should be reduced further. We should not be subsidising large vehicles. The people who are not benefiting are the very people who are paying the bulk of the carbon tax, have to drive the longest distances and do not have public transport. We will point that out to the Department in terms of public expenditure.

No. 1315 is from Mr. Tom Boland, chairman of Benefacts, dated 17 June 2022. Having reviewed the committee’s correspondence with Departments and State agencies, which we have published, Mr. Boland states that he has written to the committee to correct the record on correspondence we have received from the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Rural and Community Development on the closure of the Benefacts database. Mr. Boland contests a number of statements made by the Departments, including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s statement that it “does not intend to establish a similar database, as it has no business need for one (it is not in itself a user of Benefacts’ services).” Mr. Boland states that in 2018 Benefacts was contacted by the pay and pensions unit of the Department and asked to provide a detailed analysis of the pay, pensions and PRSI profile of all non-profit organisations receiving funding from any State source, and that in 2021 an updated version of these data sets was requested by the Department.

The Department of Rural and Community Development’s statement that it “never had a funding relationship with Benefacts” is also contested. Mr. Boland states that at the request of that Department’s social enterprise unit, Benefacts was funded to produce a detailed data set to assist officials in identifying non-profit organisations that might be capable of being recognised by the Department as social enterprises. There are a number of other contested statements.

As well as our correspondence with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, we included the closure of Benefacts on the agenda for our meeting with officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on 19 May this year. Some members have expressed concern over the termination of the database, given that it is reported that it provided oversight of about €7 billion of public funds that goes to the non-profit sector each year. The correspondence we received from the Central Statistics Office, No. R1246, on the closure of the database gave rise to further concerns.

It stated that the data it received free of charge from Benefacts was 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 database, the CSO states that it will need investment across a number of areas.

We have requested sight of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's business case for, and the value for money review of, the Benefacts database. We have also brought the matter and the CSO's correspondence to the attention of the Minister for Public and Expenditure and Reform. I propose we request the consent of the correspondent to bring the correspondence to the Minister's attention and ask that he review the matter, and that we also request the correspondent to consent to publish the correspondence, except the Indecon report, which is marked "Strictly confidential and not for publication".

I will open the floor to members before putting the proposal to the committee. Deputy Catherine Murphy raised this issue.