Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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338. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the basis on which his Department has chosen to end funding for an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34609/20]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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339. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on the findings of a report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34610/20]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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340. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which he plans to ensure the continued availability of independent, reliable, publicly-accessible and timely information on the €14 billion non-profit sector and its work if an organisation (details supplied) ceases to operate on 31 December 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34611/20]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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341. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the independently-managed, comprehensive database on the non-profit sector established and maintained by an organisation (details supplied) will continue to be freely and publicly available into the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34612/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 338, 339, 340 and 341 together.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has provided grant funding to Benefacts, a not-for-profit organisation, for a pathfinder project in the area of data on the non-profit sector. This grant funding agreement ceases on 31^stDecember 2020.

During the period of the grant agreement, my Department commissioned an independent report on the market for data on the non-profit sector. One of the options identified in the report was for centralised information on the non-profit sector to be provided directly by a government department or agency. Key public service stakeholders, including the Departments of Rural and Community Development, Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Central Statistics Office, Tusla and the HSE, agreed that such an approach was the preferred approach as it offered the best means to ensure the scope and specification of work in this area met their needs and provided value for money.

To facilitate consideration by these key public stakeholders of the range issues involved, it is proposed to make €950,000 available through the Revised 2021 Estimate for my Department's Vote to allow Benefacts to continue to provide data on the non-profit sector during 2021.