Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been widely accepted there is a role for the Government to play in the funding of good causes at community level or, indeed, at a scaled-up regional and national level, where charities and volunteer services carry out important functions and services for the people of this country, services which otherwise would be carried out by the Government anyway. Where this system breaks down and becomes suspect is when the Government finds itself funding bodies whose sole purpose is not to help, serve or facilitate and to organise volunteers, but to lobby.

Ireland has an astonishing 32,141 NGOs, with many being taxpayer-funded to the collective tune of €5.9 billion annually, a figure worth remembering any time a lack of funds is used as an excuse for not meeting some basic need. It is a case of “Sorry, we are giving that money away to spend it on trying to change people's minds.”As has been seen recently, many of the NGOs wield enormous lobbying power which is completely disproportionate to the actual support they have the community. They are hot air balloons puffed up with government money and are presumed to be large based on the shadow they cast on Twitter, which we all know is not a real place. It really has become the case that in Ireland the massively bloated NGO sector has become the tail that wags the dog. We should have a serious look at restricting taxpayers' funding to organisations that are non-political and truly non-profit and engage in clearly charitable pursuits or are involved in policy implementation rather than policy influencing. We politicians are here to serve the people. If someone wants to come to speak to us and share an opinion or idea, they can do so. They do not need to be on a payroll to do it.