Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

643. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total annual expenditure by the State on the non-profit and NGO sector for each of the past five years, disaggregated by Department and agency. [46638/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

645. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform whether the Government will consider re-establishing an independent mechanism for tracking and publishing the flow of public monies to the non-profit sector, given that Ireland remains without such a body since 2021. [46641/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

646. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his Department has analysed how Ireland’s public expenditure on NGOs compares with other European Union member states as a proportion of GDP; and if he will publish these findings. [46644/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

647. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the safeguards that exist to ensure value for money in the disbursement of public funds to NGOs, in the absence of an independent national database. [46647/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 643, 645, 646 and 647 together.

There is no commonly agreed definition of the term NGO (non-governmental organisation) but it is typically used to refer to civil society bodies, which is the approach taken in this reply. In that context, my Department has funded Transparency International Ireland (TII) since 2013 to support the Department’s role in the implementation of the Protected Disclosures Act. The Department provides this funding in order to help workers raise concerns regarding potential wrongdoing that has come to their attention in the workplace. The funding provided for the last 5 years is set out in the table below:

It is a matter for each Department to satisfy itself when providing funding to an external body. More generally, Circular 13/2014 on the Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds outlines the requirements to be followed by grantors and grantees in the management of grant funding provided from public money. This Circular makes clear that there should be transparency and accountability in the management of public money, in line with economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

As the Deputy may be aware, my Department provided grant funding to Benefacts between the period 2015 and 2022. The project was funded as a pathfinder initiative in the area of data analytics on the non-profit sector. Benefacts was initially co-funded with philanthropy. However, in later years, the Department had been providing the majority of funding to the entity. On foot of an independent report in 2019 and a subsequent review in 2020, my Department ceased funding Benefacts in March 2022. The factors influencing the original decision to terminate funding have not changed and consequently, my Department has no plans to reconstitute Benefacts.