Call for
- Full transparency on all State-provided NGO funding, including programme metrics, outcomes, and independent audits.
- Annual, independent public audits of NGOs receiving exchequer and quasi-State funding.
- A review of duplicated state functions, considering whether certain tasks should be brought back under direct government control.
- A centralised open-data platform for nonprofit and NGO funding, governance, and performance — resembling the former Benefacts model
There is an urgent need for a suite of measures that will ensure full disclosure on just exactly what sums of money the State is pumping into the huge NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations) sector, with one Cllr describing them today as a ‘shadow cabinet’.
Aontú Cllr Emer Tóibín is calling for urgent reform of the multi million euro sector ,to ‘ ensure accountability and transparency ‘around what she says are ‘quasi political departments ‘ who wield ‘huge powers but have absolutely no mandate from the people”.
She says she wants to see an end to State dependence on organisations that are effectively doing the government’s work without democratic accountability.
“In recent years, vast sums of taxpayer money have flowed into NGOs and quangos that are now effectively shaping national policy from behind the scenes. These groups have absolutely NO mandate whatsoever from the people and yet they have the ear of government in a way that ordinary citizens and communities simply do not. Not only is this totally undemocratic it is deeply worrying – There is a glaring lack of oversight and accountability .
This is all the more so since Benefacts, which previously centralised nonprofit financial data, ceased operations in 2022 — as this removed a critical layer of transparency.
It is quite incredible that while frontline services – health, housing, disability supports, and education – remain overstretched, underfunded and failing families, government after government continues to channel hundreds of millions of euro annually into a network of NGOs, many of which duplicate state functions or actively lobby ministers for policy changes that the public never voted for.
“This is not a question of charities doing good work in local communities – many do. The problem is that the State has outsourced its responsibilities to a parallel structure that answers to nobody but itself. In effect, we now have two governments in this country: the elected one, and the shadow one,” Cllr Tóibín said.
She added: “Citizens who try to get answers from a government department face stone wall, endless emails signed off by anonymous ‘teams,’ and hours on hold. But if you are a well-funded NGO with a Dublin office, you get in the door of every department, every time. That is not democracy – it is capture.”
“The people of Ireland deserve a government that serves them directly, not one that hides behind a network of NGOs and quangos. Taxpayers fund this system, and they have a right to know if it is working in their best interests – or just in the interests of those who run it.”
