Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank our colleagues in Fianna Fáil for raising this matter. As someone who comes from the voluntary sector, I believe it is a very important issue. Charitable organisations have a number of aspects. We must acknowledge the role charitable organisations - a term I do not particularly like because it is probably more correct to call them voluntary organisations - play in the public domain. There is a significant number of charitable organisations which play a very significant role in the delivery of what would be regarded as fundamental social services, be they in health, education, disability or housing. We should sometimes ask ourselves whether some of the services being delivered by the voluntary sector should be delivered by mainstream bodies. It is certainly something which came to a head at the Committee of Public Accounts in the context of the Rehab Group when it became clear that block grants were being given to certain organisations with insufficient scrutiny as to how this money was being disbursed. This gives a significant amount of power to the organisations concerned because, in effect, they can spend Government moneys which, if being spent by a Government Department, would be subject to far more scrutiny and be far more highly regulated.

I agree we need to regulate our voluntary sector. In that respect, I welcome the code of governance for the voluntary sector that has become the norm for most fully functioning NGOs. Most organisations which work in the public domain, of which I am aware, adhere to the code of conduct for the voluntary sector. Government also has a responsibility in respect of funding. Many voluntary organisations front-load their activities and find themselves waiting seven, eight, nine or ten months into the year before they are even advised as to what their funding will be for the year in which they have already expended resources. It is very important to note that voluntary organisations, like other organisations, have staff who have families and who are paying mortgages. The idea of moving to multi-annual funding for voluntary organisations is critical and this Government has gone some way in that respect, which is very welcome.

There are three issues I wish to highlight. What do we expect our voluntary sector to do? Do we expect it to deliver mainstream services or do we expect it to fill gaps which are not filled by Government or the State sector? We must also ask ourselves whether it is fair not to fund voluntary organisations appropriately and to have most of our voluntary organisations highly dependent on charitable resources and forced to raise most of their money privately. Few charities in this country do not get Government funding in some size, shape or form. Therefore, there is an enormous onus on them to be absolutely clear and transparent as to how those resources are spent. As such, it has taken a very long time for Governments to require the type of governance in the voluntary sector that should be best practice. We need to move our voluntary sector into the 21st century in a number of ways, with governance being chief among them.