Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The number of homeless people in Louth and the north east continues to climb, with 185 people accessing emergency accommodation in this region, 163 of them are in Louth. Along with investment in housing, we must further invest in our homeless charities through both Government and local authority supports. Homeless charities have picked up the pieces where insufficient Government funding has failed, providing crucial services to the community.

For example, the Save our Homeless Dundalk charity is dedicated to helping people who are experiencing homelessness and aiding people and families who are experiencing financial hardship. It does amazing work within my constituency yet it is dependent on the generosity of the public and local businesses to do its work. Three in ten charities, 31%, did not receive any State funding in 2021. Over half of these charities has an annual income of less than €50,000 and 72% are volunteers only, meaning that they have no paid staff.

Pobal administers and manages Government and EU funding through the community service programme to address disadvantage and to support social inclusion and equality. It currently supports 400 charities in the Republic. This is commendable but the number of charities is growing to meet the growing needs of our people.

This year, after a lengthy community service programme application process by 197 charities, those volunteers jumped through the hoops to make the application. Less than half successfully progressed to the second stage, which means that only a handful charities will likely access much needed wage funding for the first time. There is an urgent need to provide adequate an sustainable multi-annual funding to the homelessness sector. This funding should reflect the full cost of service delivery, including wage funding for charity management and governance management, as well as flexible funding to meet increasing needs and inflation. Wage funding is important because in 2022, 648,000 people volunteered with an Irish charity and contributed at least €1 billion worth of time. About 76,000 people volunteered also as charity trustees and are directly responsible for overseeing the operation and governance of a charity.

With an expectation that every euro raised should go into the delivery of frontline services, this puts board members at a serious disadvantage, especially with regard to time and resources when it comes to regulatory, governance and compliance requirements. There are no supports to maintain such governance skill sets and, on top of this, charities often hold no reserve or carry unfunded deficits from one year to the next.

Will the Minister recognise the centrality of funding concerns across the community and voluntary sector with the precarious financial situation in various charity organisations? There is an urgent need to provide adequate and sustainable multi-annual funding to the homelessness sector reflecting the full cost of delivery, including wage funds and inflation.

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