Mr. Tom Boland:

We are very pleased to be here to tell you about the work of Benefacts and we very much appreciate the opportunity to do so. Benefacts is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2014. Its objective is to transform the transparency of Ireland’s not-for-profit sector. I am the chairman of the board and have been for approximately one year. The board has five other non-executive directors. All the board members serve in a voluntary capacity. The board comprises people with high levels of expertise in the work of non-profit organisations and in public communications, financial reporting, law and philanthropy. Benefacts has a professional staff of 15 reporting to the managing director, Ms Patricia Quinn, who is here with me and will talk to the committee about our work in much more detail.

Benefacts came into being thanks to the vision of Ms Quinn, as founder, but also thanks to a funding partnership between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Atlantic Philanthropies and The Ireland Funds. Like the Economic and Social Research Institute, whose foundation 50 years ago was co-funded by the Irish Government and private philanthropy, Benefacts is a unique solution to a previously unmet need; in our case, for a dynamic, independent public database with a listing for every non-profit organisation in Ireland.

I will ask Ms Quinn to tell the committee more about our work. We are both very happy to have a discussion and answer questions.