Ms Lily Power:

I thank the committee members for this opportunity to appear before them. The community and voluntary, charity, and social enterprise sector stands as a vital pillar of Irish society, making a profound contribution to our economy and our communities. The sector manages €25 billion in annual income, generating more than half of this through fundraising, thereby significantly contributing to the cost of essential public services and supports.

More than 1 million people volunteer in Ireland every year. The State has long depended on the agility of the community and voluntary sector to respond to crises and fill gaps in public services and infrastructure, particularly in areas like housing, health, social care and disability. Workers and volunteers in the sector provide support to countless people across every county every day.

If we can draw one lesson from recent crises such as Covid-19, the invasion of Ukraine, and more recently Storm Eowyn, it is that the strength of a society lies not only in its ability to avoid crises but also in how it responds to them. In Ireland, that response has always been rooted in the compassion, commitment, and adaptability of community organisations from family resource centres to meals on wheels, to refugee supports, to community centres, to GAA clubs. These crises have shown that we can all be affected and can all need the help of community and voluntary organisations.

Despite the immense value produced, long-term investment from the State seldom matches its reliance on we call the hidden infrastructure of community organisations. In The Wheel’s recent member survey, almost half of respondents were unsure if their organisation would have sufficient funding to provide their existing supports and services for the rest of that year. More than one third said that currently they were unable to sufficiently recruit and retain staff that they need.

The programme for Government makes a clear commitment to "ensuring our communities thrive and making our villages, towns and cities safer; to supporting a caring society; and to continue the focus on addressing poverty and social exclusion". There has been progress in some of these areas but there is still a long way to go if we want to create these thriving communities. We believe the first budget of the new Government presents a critical opportunity for change.

Consistent poverty rates increased to 5% in 2024. There were 95,000 people awaiting inpatient treatment at the beginning of the year and some 4,500 children accessing homeless services. As well as these significant national challenges, we are also living in an uncertain global context. I do not need to tell the committee that increasing inequality and climate breakdown will combine to create a particularly challenging context for policymaking and economic decision-making in 2026. Community and voluntary organisations occupy a unique position in communities from which to address these challenges. They are already doing it. They are already on the ground.

In our longer pre-budget submission, we provide detailed analysis and recommendations for supporting the sector as a whole and our more than 2,500 member organisations. Issues include sustainability of the sector, pay parity, the need for multi-annual funding as well as broader societal issues.

In recent months, disparity in pay and conditions for organisations delivering public services on behalf of the State has received a lot of public attention. We strongly welcome the recent progress on this issue through the Workplace Relations Commission and the agreement of a 9.25% increase for up to 40,000 workers equivalent to the most recent public sector pay agreement.

It is vital this increase is effectively rolled out to the relevant organisations, and that a clear, efficient mechanism is put in place for these organisations to issue payments. We also need meaningful engagement to continue on which organisations are included within the scope of the deal. Ms Grogan mentioned that many of our members have multiple funding sources and at the moment a kind of a two-tier system is being created within organisations that receive funding for different staff from different Departments.

There are also many non-pay-related issues which are having an impact on these organisations' ability to deliver the services and supports they are being funded to provide. These include pension auto-enrolment, rising costs around insurance premiums and energy, the cost of living as well as the housing crisis and the ongoing impact of inflation.

To really provide public services and supports that reflect need and best practice, we believe the State should provide funding on a full-cost-recovery basis, considering the need for these organisations to fund core costs, pay staff adequately, train and develop staff, make provision for pension contributions where appropriate and deal with rising costs. Applying these changes across Government Departments and agencies would also help avoid complexity and the two-tier system that it being created.

The Wheel has long advocated for the introduction of multi-annual funding as the default approach for community and voluntary organisations. It is mentioned in the programme for Government in relation to health provision. It would facilitate longer-term planning, better staff recruitment and retention rates, and improved outcomes for service users.

If we are to realise the commitments set out in the programme for Government to ensure our communities thrive and we have safer villages, towns and cities and to really address poverty and social exclusion, then decisive action is required to support the community and voluntary sector which is doing this work. Our communities are resilient but that resilience depends on a hidden infrastructure. It must be strengthened through investment, vision and meaningful partnership working with the sector.