Charities fear that they will be at the "back of the queue" for funding in Budget 2016 as the Government contemplates widespread tax cuts, according to advocates within the sector.
At a pre-budget press conference near Leinster House, representatives of six national networks urged Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and departmental heads to prioritise additional spending for services rather than funding cuts to income tax and the universal social charge (USC).
"People are recognising that we have a lot of parts of Irish society that are broken and we need to fix them," said Diarmaid Ó Corrbuí of the Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups, appearing alongside representatives of the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), Irish Rural Link, the Disability Federation of Ireland, Care Alliance Ireland and The Wheel.
“We think there’s a skewed mispriority in terms of focusing on cutting income tax. We really need to make up lost ground in terms of investing in our people,” said Mr Ó Corrbuí, whose organisation supports family carers nationwide.
According to a recently-commissioned report by the umbrella group The Wheel, 42 per cent of charities experienced a fall in income in the year up to May 2015, while at the same time 72 per cent of organisations dealt with increasing demand for their services.
Austerity measures
Following years of austerity measures, cuts to charity funding ended in last year’s budget, which was broadly cost-neutral for the sector.
Voluntary service providers expect the Fine Gael-Labour coalition to distribute additional money in this year’s budget evenly between services and funding tax breaks.
However, The Wheel's head of advocacy, Ivan Cooper, believes the split should be two-thirds in favour of restoring services following the difficult recent years.
“The cuts to budgets have affected front line services, and what we ask here is that if we’re a caring society, we need to recognise that it’s restoring budgets to those services that’s more important than giving people a few extra bob in their pockets,” he said.
NYCI director Mary Cunningham also emphasised the need for a "significant" increase in funding for youth services.
She said youth services will be stretched to breaking point, given the population boom in the 10-24 age category.
“It was summed up beautifully by a youth work manager at a conference over the weekend who said, ‘People’s goodwill is close to the end.’
“Volunteers are giving more time, paid staff who have had their hours cut have replaced those with volunteer hours, but really there does need to be a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.