Charities pressured to ‘do more with less’
The figures also show that a third of charities have cut back or suspended services in the past year due to a lack of funding.
Some 42% of charities surveyed reported a drop in income over the same period. Deirdre Garvey, chief executive of The Wheel, said charities are under pressure to provide services for more people with less money.
“Charities are really struggling to make ends meet and to make a difference,” she said. “What we’re hearing is that they are finding it really difficult to provide all of their usual services and do everything the work entails when all the while funding is being cut.
“People tend to go to charities in the hour of their greatest need. The media talks of economic recovery but these people aren’t seeing that. At the moment, there is no upturn for these people. Upturns take a long time to trickle down.”
Ms Garvey called on the Government to prioritise investment in social provision and social infrastructure and asks them not to cut any more from the charity sector — cuts which effectively hurt the most vulnerable people in society.
“In recent budgets, Government has rightly focused on achieving sustainability in our public finances, but we must acknowledge this has come at an enormous cost to Ireland’s social infrastructure,” said Ms Garvey.
“We can now see clear evidence that even though the economy has been growing for over a year, the services that people rely on continues to be cut. We are calling on Government today to prioritise the restoration of funding for services in Budget 2016. We are also calling on Government to ensure that future funding models continue to support the community and voluntary sector in its work of sustaining communities in Ireland.”
Yesterday, more than 150 charities attended The Wheel’s Conference and Expo 2015.
www.wheel.ie.
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