Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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9. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the work carried out by her Department to encourage and further develop philanthropy in Ireland. [8607/22]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Acting Chair for her discretion. My apologies, but I was attending a committee meeting. This question is about the work being carried out by the Department to encourage and further develop philanthropy in Ireland.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chair for the flexibility because I very much welcome this question. My Department's statement of strategy contains a commitment to support the growth and development of philanthropy in Ireland and to develop a national policy on philanthropy. My Department works in partnership with Philanthropy Ireland, Charities Institute Ireland and Rethink Ireland to support their work to facilitate, encourage and grow philanthropic giving in Ireland. This includes the provision of grant funding. In 2021, my Department signed a new five-year contract with Rethink Ireland. The business model is for Government funding to match the philanthropic donations on a 50:50 co-funded basis. An allocation of €5.5 million match funding for this initiative is provided in the dormant accounts action plan for this year.

Work has commenced in my Department on the development of an enabling policy to foster a positive operating environment for philanthropy. This process is being informed by the findings and recommendations of the report, The Landscape of Philanthropic Giving in Ireland, that was commissioned by the Department in 2021. Following publication of the report, the Department organised a workshop, "Where will the Philanthropy of Today lead us tomorrow? Charting a course for the development of an Irish National Policy on Philanthropy", in association with the European Research Network on Philanthropy. Recommendations from the workshop will also frame the policy development process. A significant element of both these initiatives was the contribution made by experts in the many areas of philanthropy - donors, practitioners, advisers, advocates and Government officials. My intention is to have a draft policy for public consultation by the end of 2022.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. As he rightly outlined, the existence of a vibrant and thriving philanthropic community is a very important element of civic society. In recent years especially, we have seen outstanding philanthropic work from individuals and organisations. Even at times of such difficulty and constraint Irish people have always managed to find the time and means to think of others. This is something we should be very proud of as a nation. Annual philanthropic giving to registered charities amounted to €108 million over the period from 2017 to 2018. However, research by Indecon notes that outside of Ireland there has been a decline in annual levels of philanthropic giving by international philanthropists. There was a decline of approximately €65 million from 2014 to 2019. How do we address this international shortfall? How will the Department's national philanthropic policy ensure we, as an island, do not become overreliant on international philanthropy?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy who has made a very good point. In the past there has certainly been a level of overreliance on a small number of very large international philanthropic organisations. As the policy goes forward I will be supportive of getting more Irish-based medium-sized philanthropic giving throughout the country. There is an argument for it being area-based also. There have been some proposals in this regard from foundations working in the area, whereby we should encourage a localised form of philanthropic giving. It is already happening but it is certainly an area of huge untapped potential in the country. There are many good people and businesses who want to make a contribution towards improving society. It is certainly our intention that the policy will facilitate this in a much better way than it has in the past.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. We know the regulatory and fiscal frameworks vary between countries. There is no single example of best practice in this regard. One aspect is, of course, Government support for philanthropic endeavour through providing tax or other incentives. The OECD has indicated there is no single accepted rationale for the preferential tax treatment of philanthropy. This is because it is such a complex area. It is critical that any tax incentive is used effectively and not in any way exploited. I would welcome more information on how we are navigating regulation of philanthropic work and proper use of incentives.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. This specific issue is one we will start tackling this year. We hope to announce in the near future an advisory group to help us develop this policy. It is worth citing the top five things that motivate philanthropic giving as listed in the Indecon report. These are care about the cause, people believing they can make a difference, people believing we all need to help solve social problems, trusting the organisations being donated to and wanting to help people who are less fortunate. These are very good intentions that we want to support more. While there is a reasonable level of philanthropic giving in Ireland, compared to other European countries of a similar level we are quite low. It is an area of untapped potential and we will be deciding this year, through the national policy development process, how we facilitate more of these people who want to do the things that we do in government also. There will be a challenge because much philanthropic giving is very personal and there is a balancing act in trying to encourage it to align to some extent with government priorities also. It is a delicate balancing act. We want to facilitate people to give to the causes that they want to.